The neurodynamics of Epilepsy

Aim

To determine what factors cause a seizure to spread from a small localised area to other parts of the brain.

Description

Epilepsy is a neurological disease affecting approximately 1% of the population and it is characterised by abnormal electrical activity in the brain called seizures. Generally, the more parts of the brain affected by a seizure the more severe the condition. The severity of the seizures and their affect on the quality of life of the patient varies both between and within patients, i.e., a single patient can have varying degrees of severity of seizures and different patients with similar conditions can have varying degrees of severity of seizures. It is not known what physiological factors determine this variation. If these factors were known, treatments could be devised that limit the spread and severity of the seizure. Master of Engineering Science candidate Andre Peterson’s research involves constructing a physiologically plausible mathematical model of a complex brain network in order to determine what properties of the network facilitate seizure spread. In particular he is studying how a seizure spreads on a microscopic scale and what self-correcting mechanisms of the brain are responsible for containing the abnormal activity as well as, more importantly, how they can fail. The model will be tested against real patient seizure data to investigate which factors determine the seizure spread.

People

Mr Andre Peterson	Prof Tony Burkitt
Prof Iven Mareels	Dr David Grayden
Prof Mark Cook

Funding

This research is supported by ARC Linkage Project (LP0560684).