Combined EEG-fMRI and tractography to visualise propagation of epileptic activity

In a patient with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy, EEG-fMRI showed activation in association with left anterior temporal interictal discharges, in the left temporal, parietal and occipital lobes. Dynamic causal modelling suggested propagation of neural activity from the temporal focus to the area of occipital activation. Tractography showed connections from the site of temporal lobe activation to the site of occipital activation. This demonstrates the principle of combining EEG-fMRI and tractography to delineate the pathways of propagation of epileptic activity.

[1]  P. Gloor,et al.  Occipitotemporal Epilepsies: Evaluation of Selected Patients Requiring Depth Electrodes Studies and Rationale for Surgical Approaches , 1993, Epilepsia.

[2]  G. Lindinger,et al.  Propagation of interictal epileptic activity in temporal lobe epilepsy , 1995, Neurology.

[3]  M. Raichle,et al.  Tracking neuronal fiber pathways in the living human brain. , 1999, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[4]  M R Symms,et al.  Methodology: EEG-correlated fMRI. , 2000, Advances in neurology.

[5]  S. Spencer Neural Networks in Human Epilepsy: Evidence of and Implications for Treatment , 2002, Epilepsia.

[6]  Gareth J. Barker,et al.  Investigating Cervical Spinal Cord Structure Using Axial Diffusion Tensor Imaging , 2002, NeuroImage.

[7]  Derek K. Jones,et al.  Occipito-temporal connections in the human brain. , 2003, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[8]  Daniel C. Alexander,et al.  Probabilistic Monte Carlo Based Mapping of Cerebral Connections Utilising Whole-Brain Crossing Fibre Information , 2003, IPMI.

[9]  Geoffrey J M Parker,et al.  A framework for a streamline‐based probabilistic index of connectivity (PICo) using a structural interpretation of MRI diffusion measurements , 2003, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[10]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Comparing dynamic causal models , 2004, NeuroImage.

[11]  John S. Duncan,et al.  Noninvasive in vivo demonstration of the connections of the human parahippocampal gyrus , 2004, NeuroImage.

[12]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Modelling functional integration: a comparison of structural equation and dynamic causal models , 2004, NeuroImage.

[13]  Geoff J. M. Parker,et al.  Characterizing function–structure relationships in the human visual system with functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging , 2004, NeuroImage.

[14]  R. E. Passingham,et al.  Prediction error for free monetary reward in the human prefrontal cortex , 2004, NeuroImage.

[15]  L. Hirsch Competing interests: none declared. , 2006 .

[16]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Hemodynamic correlates of epileptiform discharges: An EEG-fMRI study of 63 patients with focal epilepsy , 2006, Brain Research.