Structural and Functional Connectivity in Partial Epilepsies Studied with MRI and MEG

Surgery may be an effective therapy for refractory focal epilepsies with a clear delineated focus but surgical benefits are less clear for patients with a poorly defined focus such as non lesional refractory partial epilepsies.

SEEG is considered the criterion standard to localize the epileptogenic zone (EZ) but the procedure is risky with a limited spatial sampling. The development of non-invasive neuroimaging alternatives is thus an important goal to improve EZ delineation and optimize SEEG procedures.

The main hypothesis of this research project is the existence of a network organization specific for each patient which allows the generation and propagation of epileptic activities. The investigators wish to explore this network using diffusion tensor MRI to study structural connectivity and MEG/FMRI to study functional connectivity. The investigators will apply tools from the theories of complex networks and dynamical systems to characterize the network organization of epileptic process.

The investigators aimed to identify and localize differences in connectivity parameters between individual patients and a control group of healthy volunteers.