Mathematical simulations shed new light on epilepsy surgery
About 100,000 people in the Netherlands suffer from epilepsy, a disorder characterized by recurrent seizures. In two thirds of patients, the disorder responds well to medicinal treatment. In some cases, surgical removal of a small brain region is the best option. However, the region in question varies from one patient to another. This poses neurologists with a dilemma -- exactly which region needs to be removed? In many cases, they select regions of brain tissue that -- in an MRI image, for example -- appear to have an abnormal structure. Mathematicians from the University of Twente, together with researchers from the University Medical Center Utrecht, have used computer simulations to show that it may sometimes be better to remove regions with a normal appearance rather than 'abnormal' brain tissue. Jurgen Hebbink , one of the researchers involved, points out that "Our model yields insight into the key role that the network structure can play. In our simulations it...