Combining state-of-the-art brain imaging methods, we aim to understand how functional networks in the brain respond and adapt to epilepsy and epilepsy-associated lesions.
The development of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) has dramatically impacted on basic neuroscience and clinical research, allowing direct insight into human brain structures and functions in vivo.
Our research focuses on understanding how functional systems in the brain, particularly those involved in memory, respond and adapt to acute and chronic brain injury. Patients undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy and related conditions present a unique opportunity to study and identify specific situations in which “functional plasticity”, or re-mapping of functions in the brain, may occur. In addition to improving our understanding of how brain structures interact to form and store memories, our research also offers a directly translational application to improve surgical management in individual patients. Primary translational research objectives are to improve the selection of patients likely to benefit from surgical intervention while minimising risks to functions central to their quality of life.
Our team
Clinical Collaborators
Richard Stacey, Consultant Neurosurgeon
Arjune Sen, Consultant Neurologist
Claire Isaac, Consultant Neuropsychologist
Susan Towle, Neurophysiology
RESeARCH & External Collaborators
Mark Woolrich, Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity
Daniel Drane (Emory University, USA)
EpiCARE (the European Reference Network in Epilepsy)
Research Projects
Structure-function associations in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy – Longitudinal assessments of outcomes in surgical epilepsy candidates
Multimodal imaging of epileptogenic networks – Advanced technologies to identify the onset zone(s) and spread of seizures in individual patients
Psychiatric symptoms of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy – Studying the neural substrates of behavioural symptoms of epilepsy
News and Views
- Interesting piece by Dan Drane on the possible advantages of laser surgery for TLE. Article link here.