Physics Commons^™

Brain Network Structure And Interventions In A Computational Model Of Epilepsy, Joe Emerson

Student Symposium

Some forms of drug-resistant epilepsy can only be treated via surgical intervention. This form of treatment requires the removal of a part of the brain identified as the seizure source. Current methods for surgical treatment are risky and many times unsuccessful. A deeper understanding of how brain connectivity facilitates seizure propagation is necessary for developing improved surgical techniques. Experimental limitations make certain clinical investigations of epilepsy difficult or impossible, but computational modeling offers a way forward when experimentation in living systems is impractical or unsafe. We used a full-hemisphere computational model for epilepsy to investigate the role of network structure …