Name:
Eric van Diessen
Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Function:
MD, PhD-student
E-mail:
E.vanDiessen-3@umcutrecht.nl Tel:+31 88-75 53496
Pager : # 4278
Supervisor:
Dr. F.E. Jansen
Title research:
Assessment of change in seizure semiology with age and its relation to the development of functional networks in children with partial epilepsy
Summary research:
The interplay between seizures and (altered) brain development in children might be reflected by change of clinical manifestations of seizures (semiology) with age. Previous studies investigated the variation of semiology in different age groups. How and when semiology changes in the individual patient, and its relation to structural brain imaging (as examined with cerebral MRI and functional investigations (as examined with EEG), has never been studied.
Currently, there is increasing evidence that the brain can be conceived as a complex network. Modern network theory offers the opportunity to quantify these neural networks. Either by using functional data (EEG, MEG or resting state functional MRI) or structural data (Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), brain networks can be constructed and simplified in terms of their network topology.
The exact relationship between changes in seizure semiology and changes in these brain networks – cause or consequence? - remains to be clarified. Changes in brain networks with normal development could be one of several factors responsible for the evolution of seizure semiology with age. Both changes in semiology and changes in networks could also be caused by changes in the underlying structural pathology. One way or the other, it is expected that in the individual patient seizure semiology changes over time as a function of changing network structures.