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Category: Project

Description: The Epilepsy Connectome Project (ECP) will focus on gaining a better understanding of why some patients respond well to anticonvulsant therapy, whereas others develop controlled seizures and progressive brain dysfunction. The ECP will use imaging tools for quantitatively characterizing the structural and functional connections between brain regions to aid in treating refractory epilepsy. Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), the most common form of epilepsy in adults and the largest group among those with medically refractory seizures, will be a key focus of the study. The study will explore a number of issues relating to connectivity abnormalities, such as: the impact of recurring seizures over many years in TLE, the correlation to cognitive and psychosocial dysfunction observed in people with TLE, that the severity predicts the risk of subsequent decline in cognitive and psychosocial function, and that the severity predicts the risk of developing medically refractory seizures.