Finding the brain circuit behind focal epilepsy using lesions and deep brain stimulation
Using Brain Lesions and Deep Brain Stimulation to Identify an Epilepsy Circuit
This project uses patterns of brain injury and responses to deep brain stimulation to find the brain circuit that causes and treats focal epilepsy in people with lesions from stroke, trauma, or tumors.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Brigham and Women's Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11307081 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you have focal epilepsy linked to a brain lesion or have had deep brain stimulation, researchers will combine the location of your lesion or stimulation site with a standard map of human brain connections to find distant brain regions tied to seizures. They will apply a normative connectome so individual patient scans of connectivity are not required, allowing them to study many existing clinical cases. By comparing circuits connected to lesions that cause epilepsy with circuits connected to DBS sites that reduce seizures, the team hopes to spot shared nodes that point to better treatment targets. The work builds on similar mapping methods used in Parkinson's disease, memory disorders, and depression and uses imaging and clinical data from patients and clinical centers.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are people with focal epilepsy related to a visible brain lesion (for example from stroke, trauma, or tumor) and patients who have undergone or are candidates for deep brain stimulation for seizures.
Not a fit: People with generalized epilepsy without a focal lesion or those without imaging and DBS location data are unlikely to benefit directly from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could point doctors to better brain targets for stimulation and help predict which patients with brain lesions are at higher risk for epilepsy or more likely to benefit from DBS.
How similar studies have performed: Related lesion-network and DBS-mapping approaches have successfully identified circuits in Parkinsonism, amnesia, and depression, and early stroke data suggest this method can reveal common seizure-related networks, though applying it to epilepsy treatment remains relatively new.
Where this research is happening
Boston, United States
- Brigham and Women's Hospital — Boston, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Fox, Michael D — Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Study coordinator: Fox, Michael D
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.