METHOD OF IDENTIFYING A SURGICALLY OPERABLE TARGET ZONE IN AN EPILEPTIC PATIENT'S BRAIN

摘要

The invention relates to a method of identifying a potentially surgically operable target zone in an epileptic patient's brain. According to the invention, the method comprises the following steps: providing a computerized platform modelling various zones of a primate brain and connectivity between said zones; providing a model of an epileptogenic zone and a model of the propagation of an epileptic discharge from an epileptic zone to a propagation zone; obtaining a patient's personalized computerized platform; deriving the potential target zones based on modularity analysis; evaluating the target zones' effectiveness by simulating epileptic seizures propagation in the personalized patient's computerized platform; evaluating the target zones' safety by simulating spatiotemporal brain activation patterns in a defined state condition and comparing the simulated spatiotemporal brain activation patterns obtained before removal of the target zone with the spatiotemporal brain activation patterns obtained after removal of the target zone; identifying the target zones which satisfy both effectiveness and safety evaluation criteria as potentially surgically operable target zones.