Turning brainwaves into breakthroughs
Nearly half a million children in the United States live with epilepsy. While medicine can control seizures for most children, about 30% of them have what's called drug-resistant epilepsy. For these kids, pinpointing exactly where seizures start in the brain can be life-changing and lifesaving.
That's where our researchers come in. Christos Papadelis, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President of Neuroscience Research at the Jane and John Justin Institute for Mind Health at Cook Children's Health Care System teamed up with postdoctoral research fellow Hmayag Partamian, Ph.D., to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can identify where seizures begin.
Using data from 43 children with drug-resistant epilepsy who underwent resective surgery, an AI system developed by Dr. Papadelis and his team learned to precisely identify where seizures begin in the brain. The tool can determine the area of seizure origin using just five minutes of recorded brain electrical activity, a dramatic improvement over conventional methods that require several days or even weeks of monitoring. By eliminating the need for manual data inspection, the system minimizes long hospital stays and strengthens surgical planning. It then transforms complex brain activity data into clear, color-coded brain maps, visually distinguishing healthy tissue from areas responsible for epilepsy.
This innovation is a major step forward in epilepsy care, bringing hope to children and families. By highlighting which regions are healthy and which are triggering seizures, the AI tool helps doctors plan safer, more precise surgeries and predict which patients may see the best outcomes.
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