Simutaneous fMRI and EEG of Epileptogenic Brain Regions

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议的研究将为候选人提供五年的机会来进一步发展他的研究技能，并将他的努力集中在他自1995年以来与赞助商进行的功能磁共振成像(FMRI)和脑电(EEG)研究上。这项研究的最终目标是评估同时进行的fMRI和EEG(fMRI/EEG)记录，作为一种准确定位原发癫痫区域的手段，即负责癫痫发作的区域。这一点的重要性在于，目前还没有任何准确的致痫区域定位技术，而且这种定位对仅在美国就有数十万人的癫痫发作对目前的治疗方法难以奏效的潜在临床益处。FMRI/EEG是一种新的人脑地形图技术，它描述了癫痫发作时脑电活动过程中脑血管的高度局部性变化。由于fMRI/EEG对代谢特征敏感，它可能通过其与其他区域的代谢差异来区分原发性致痫区域。我们的方法将使用fMRI/EEG结果与我们的癫痫手术计划可用的其他多种评估结果之间的统计比较。这些评估包括头皮EEG、颅内EEG、EEG来源建模、脑磁图、组织病理学、癫痫手术评估结果和癫痫手术结果。总体而言，这项研究利用了一个特别强大的环境，在临床癫痫、癫痫研究和人脑图谱方面建立了基础设施。这位候选人的学术职位横跨加州大学洛杉矶分校的脑图中心和癫痫障碍中心，赞助商分别是功能磁共振成像和癫痫项目的主任。拥有核磁共振研究生研究和临床癫痫奖学金培训的背景，应聘者正在发展专注于将人脑成像技术应用于癫痫的临床研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study will provide the candidate a five year opportunity to further develop his research skills and to focus his efforts on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) research that he has conducted with his sponsors since 1995. The study's ultimate goal is to evaluate simultaneous fMRI and EEG (fMRI/EEG) recordings as a means to accurately localize primary epileptogenic regions, the regions responsible for seizures. The importance of this rests in the current absence of any technique for accurate epileptogenic region localization, and the potential clinical benefit of such localization for the hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone whose seizures are refractory to current treatments. fMRI/EEG is a new technique in human brain mapping that depicts highly localized cerebrovascular changes as occur during epileptic discharges on EEG. Because fMRI/EEG is sensitive to metabolic characteristics, it potentially may distinguish the primary epileptogenic region through its metabolic difference from other regions. Our approach will employ statistical comparisons between fMRI/EEG results and the results of multiple other assessments available to our epilepsy surgery program. These assessments include scalp EEG, intracranial EEG, EEG source modeling, magnetoencephalography, tissue pathology, epilepsy surgery evaluation outcome, and epilepsy surgery outcome. Overall, the study capitalizes upon an especially strong environment with established infrastructures in clinical epilepsy, epilepsy research and human brain mapping. The candidate's academic position spans UCLA's Brain Mapping Center and Seizure Disorder Center, and the sponsors are the respective directors of the fMRI and epilepsy programs. With a background of graduate research in nuclear magnetic resonance and fellowship training in clinical epilepsy, the candidate is developing a career in clinical research focused on the application of human brain mapping techniques toward epilepsy.