A Systems-Level Approach to Human Epileptic Seizures

Rummel, Christian; Goodfellow, Marc; Gast, Heidemarie; Hauf, Martinus; Amor, Frédérique; Stibal, Alexander; Mariani, Luigi; Wiest, Roland; Schindler, Kaspar (2013). A Systems-Level Approach to Human Epileptic Seizures. Neuroinformatics, 11(2), pp. 159-173. Totowa, N.J.: Springer-Verlag 10.1007/s12021-012-9161-2

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Epileptic seizures are due to the pathological collective activity of large cellular assemblies. A better understanding of this collective activity is integral to the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. In contrast to reductionist analyses, which focus solely on small-scale characteristics of ictogenesis, here we follow a systems-level approach, which combines both small-scale and larger-scale analyses. Peri-ictal dynamics of epileptic networks are assessed by studying correlation within and between different spatial scales of intracranial electroencephalographic recordings (iEEG) of a heterogeneous group of patients suffering from pharmaco-resistant epilepsy. Epileptiform activity as recorded by a single iEEG electrode is determined objectively by the signal derivative and then subjected to a multivariate analysis of correlation between all iEEG channels. We find that during seizure, synchrony increases on the smallest and largest spatial scales probed by iEEG. In addition, a dynamic reorganization of spatial correlation is observed on intermediate scales, which persists after seizure termination. It is proposed that this reorganization may indicate a balancing mechanism that decreases high local correlation. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that during epileptic seizures hypercorrelated and therefore functionally segregated brain areas are re-integrated into more collective brain dynamics. In addition, except for a special sub-group, a highly significant association is found between the location of ictal iEEG activity and the location of areas of relative decrease of localised EEG correlation. The latter could serve as a clinically important quantitative marker of the seizure onset zone (SOZ).

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