Electroencephalography (EEG) and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in Epilepsy

Study Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to assess EEG changes during electrical stimulation of the thalamus to treat people with epilepsy.

Background on stimulation of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus for epilepsy:

Of the estimated 4 million people in the U.S. and Europe with epilepsy, approximately 1.2 million have recurrent seizures that do not respond to antiepileptic drugs. For these patients, alternative treatments consist of neurosurgical removal of the seizure source from the brain, or surgical implantation of a device to electrically stimulate the vagus nerve in the neck. In spite of these options, a significant number of people suffer from seizures that remain uncontrolled. For this group, deep brain stimulation (DBS) may be helpful.

The rationale for using deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat epilepsy is that DBS disrupts regulatory feedback loops in the brain that allow seizures to develop and spread. By influencing these regulatory areas in the brain, electrical stimulation has the capacity to reduce or eliminate seizures that originate in portions of the brain that cannot safely be surgically removed. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) works in a similar way against seizures, but VNS disrupts the regulatory loops indirectly, while DBS disrupts the regulatory loops directly.