Study of the epileptIc network using control theory – SEPICOT

The main novelty of our approach relies on the use of control theory. We want to apply and develop novel methods from emerging control fields such as nonlinear estimation, networked systems synchronization, hybrid systems as well as innovative source localization and reconstruction techniques that will attract the attention of the control and signal processing communities respectively. This interdisciplinary project will be carried out in the CRAN (Nancy) and will involve control and signal processing researchers as well as a neuroscientist and a neurologist.

We expect two types of results. On the one hand, methodological contributions in control theory and signal processing which should be of their own interest. On the other hand, these methods should lead to novel results when applied to epilepsy, which will attract the attention of the corresponding community.

That project could lead to novel seizures diagnostic and localisation tools as well as techniques to control the ictal activity in future.

Obtained results will be submitted to international journal and conferences of the three involved communities.

For about 30% of the patients suffering from focal epilepsy, pharmacological treatments appear to be inefficient and we need to resort to surgery. The procedure consists in first localizing the epileptogenic zone via a comprehensive examination which takes into account neurological examination, fMRI, EEG, SEEG or MEG. Afterwards, we proceed to the excision provided it will not have a major impact on the patient’s life. Surgery is efficient for only a quarter of drug-resistant patients. It is therefore essential to bring fresh insights into the seizures pathophysiology in order to open the way to novel localization paradigms which would increase the surgery success rate and potentially lead to novel treatments.

In this basic research project, we want to develop and analyze patient-specific dynamical models of the epileptic network which reproduce realistic intracranial EEG activities for patients suffering from the most frequent intractable epilepsies: lobe temporal epilepsies. The model will be used to validate neurophysiological assumptions on the seizure-causing factors and might cast new lights on the localization problem of the (potential) seizure on-set zones. The originality of our approach relies on the use of control theory. We want to apply and develop novel methods from emerging control fields such as nonlinear estimation, networked systems synchronization, hybrid systems as well as innovative source localization and reconstruction techniques that will attract the attention of the control and signal processing communities respectively. This interdisciplinary project will be carried out in the CRAN (Nancy) and will involve control and signal processing researchers as well as neuroscientists and neurologists.