Freiburg Epilepsy CenterDepartment of Neurosurgery

Epilepsies are diseases characterized by alterations in brain propensity for abnormal synchronization. Research at the Freiburg epilepsy center focusses on the characterization of electrophysiological and imaging biomarkers of epileptogenicity, encompassing

• Electrophysiological characterization of preictal and early ictal periods
• Detection of proictal brain states and their behavioral correlates
• Analyses of electrophysiological biomarkers of epileptogenesis and ictogenesis
• Characterization of pathological and physiological networks in the epileptic brain
• Localization of epileptogenic brain regions
• Multiscale assessment of brain physiology
• Electrophysiological correlates of cognition and its deficiencies
• Assessment of stimulation effects on brain states

Methodologically, this includes

• Time series analysis of ongoing brain activities
• Visual and automated assessment of epilepsy biomarkers(spikes, oscillatory activity, network characteristic)
• Advanced event classification using machine learning approaches
• Source localization using high density EEG/intracranial EEG and realistic head models/ simultaneous EEG-fMRI
• Analyses of functional / structural correlates using evoked potentials and imaging
• Analyses of intracranial EEG during cognitive tasks
• Open- and closed loop interventions using electrical brain stimulation  

Research is presently supported by DFG, BMBF, NIH and EU.

There are national and international collaborations in cognitive research (University of Pennsylvania/Philadelphia;  Columbia University/New York; Harvard University/Boston; MPI Leipzig), in time series analysis (Department of Physics/Freiburg and Dresden), in analyses of functional connectivity (Department of Medical Physics/Freiburg; Institute des Neurosciences, Grenoble), in the development of Brain stimulation techniques (IMTEK/Freiburg), and in peripheral recordings of seizure correlates (King´s College/London).

MD and PhD topics are available on request.

Contact:
epilepsiezentrum@uniklinik-freiburg.de
Phone: +49 761 270 53660
www.epi-freiburg.de  

Selected publications:

• Cosandier-Rimele D, Ramantani G, Zentner J, Schulze-Bonhage A, Duempelmann M: A realistic multimodal modeling approach for the evaluation of distributed source analysis: application to sLORETA. J Neural Eng, 2017; 14: 056008
• Schulze-Bonhage A: Brain stimulation as a neuromodulatory epilepsy therapy. Seizure-eur J Epilep, 2017; 44: 169-175
• Meisel C, Plenz D, Schulze-Bonhage A, Reichmann H: Quantifying antiepileptic drug effects using intrinsic excitability measures. Epilepsia 2016; 57: e210-e215
• Donos C, Dümpelmann M, Schulze-Bonhage A. Early Seizure Detection Algorithm Based on Intracranial EEG and Random Forest Classification. Int J Neural Syst. 2015; 25:1550023
• Duempelmann M, Jacobs J, Schulze-Bonhage A: Temporal and spatial characteristics of high frequency oscillations as a new biomarker in epilepsy. Epilepsia 2015; 56:197-206
• Miller JF, Neufang M, Solway A, Brandt A, Trippel M, Mader I, Hefft S, Merkow M, Polyn SM, Jacobs J, Kahana MJ, Schulze-Bonhage A: Neural activity in human hippocampal formation reveals the spatial context of retrieved memories. Science, 2013; 342: 1111-1114