View clinical trials related to Epilepsy.
Filter by:Language is a signature human cognitive skill, but the precise computations that support language understanding remain unknown. This study aims to combine high-quality human neural data obtained through intracranial recordings with advances in computational modeling of human cognition to shed light on the construction and understanding of speech.
The overarching goal of this exploratory research is to understand the dynamic and flexible nature of speech processing in the human supratemporal plane. The temporal lobe has long been established as a region of interest in the speech perception and processing literature because it contains the auditory cortex. More recently, research has localized the supratemporal plane as an area that exhibits response specificity to acoustic properties of complex auditory signals like speech. The supratemporal plane, comprised of Heschl's gyrus, the planum polare, and the planum temporale, is capable of the rapid spectrotemporal analysis required to map acoustic information to linguistic representation. Neural activity in this area, however, is rarely studied directly because it is difficult to access with non-invasive measures like scalp electroencephalography (EEG). Capitalizing on the unique opportunity to access these areas via routine clinical stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG) in a patient population, this study seeks to understand how cortical responses reflect the diagnosticity of two acoustic-phonetic dimensions of interest and how responses rapidly and flexibly adapt to changes in listening demands. Examining how neural response to voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) modulates as a function of perceptual weight carried in signaling phoneme categories, and identifying how changes in listening context shift perceptual weight, will provide invaluable data that indicates how speech processing flexibly adapts to short-term acoustic patterns.
The purpose of the proposed investigation is to carry out a pilot study of add-on perampanel (Fycompa) in women with perimenstural (C1) catamenial epilepsy. Perampanel, a noncompetitive AMPA receptor antagonist, is uniquely positioned to decrease progesterone receptor mediated excitotoxicity. This mechanism of action would allow a novel use of perampanel as an effective treatment of C1 catamenial epilepsy.
Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), affecting 1 in 6.000 live births, is characterized by the development of multisystem tumors. Seizures are frequent up to 80% of individuals. They usually start in infancy and are often drug resistant, with a high risk of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. In animal models, preventive treatment before seizures onset significantly decreased the risk of epilepsy as well as associated comorbidities. EPISTOP randomized clinical trial (RCT) aimed to validate the effect of preventive therapy in patients with TSC diagnosed before clinical seizures with abnormal EEG, versus late standard therapy of epilepsy, administered after the seizures onset. This preventive therapy resulted in a significant better outcome in seizures and co-morbidities. However, this trial included few patients and did not allow to fully explore the secondary endpoints. Our goal within EPISTOP-IDEAL project is to benefit from joining clinical expertise of EPISTOP project and experts from IDEAL EU project on methodologies for CTs in small populations in order to consolidate the results of EPISTOP CT using uncertainty evaluation of the existing data of randomized and observational arms and adding important information from external data collected after EPISTOP ended. This collaboration aims to an optimal use of all available data (RCT, observational and external data collected with the same protocol). The goal is to demonstrate the added value of these methodologies in TSC CT and to their further use to rare epilepsies, and other rare diseases.
Laser Induced Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) is a "minimally invasive" procedure that uses the heat generated by a laser light (65°) to destroy brain lesions by coagulation leading to lesion necrosis under real-time MRI monitoring. The laser optical fiber is implanted into the lesion using stereotaxy. This technique, which can be performed under local anesthesia and on an outpatient basis, proved its efficacy and safety in the treatment of brain metastases for the first time in the world in 2006 (A. Carpentier et al, 2008, 2011). Since then, more than 5,000 patients have been treated in the USA, including for epileptogenic lesions (FDA device and CE cleared). Our goal is to evaluate LITT on lesions with drug-resistant epilepsy for which surgical resection is impossible. No therapeutic trial evaluating LITT in this indication has been performed to date. It is therefore necessary to study its feasibility and tolerance.
The aim of this study is to investigate the frequency of sleep problems in epileptic children and their caregivers.
The PRECISION-study offers a non-invasive, curative intervention for drug-resistant localised epilepsy patients who are not eligible for surgery. The intervention will consist of a single LINAC based SRT treatment and is given by the radiation-oncologist after detailed localisation of the epileptogenic zone with the neurologist, radiologist and neurosurgeon. This intervention will make curative-intent treatment possible where this could otherwise not be given and is a non-invasive and non-competitive alternative to epilepsy surgery. It is expected that the health costs for this curative treatment will not exceed standard treatment, such as lifelong medication and neuromodulation.
The most prevalent neurological disorder with also immense burden of disease, epilepsy, is in over 30 percent of patients difficult to treat. The ideal treatment regime would give complete control of disease in an early stage, not only for patient well-being, but also to prevent the onset of persistent pathologic epileptic networks in the brain. The first step in treatment is the trial, and error, of multiple anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs), while invasive brain stimulation (BS) techniques with network modulating properties are saved as a last resort. The investigators hypothesize that pharmacotherapeutic treatment of epilepsy can be more successful after "priming" (preparing) the brain using BS as a short-term neuromodulation treatment. The limitation of testing this hypothesis is the invasive aspect of the most used classic vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) treatment for epilepsy, but the recent development of transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation (tVNS) offered a possibility to combine chemical and electrical modulation in an earlier stage of disease, which is not tested before. The investigators want to determine the priming effect on the epileptic brain of tVNS, to make it more susceptible to add-on treatment with Brivaracetam (BRV), an AED. In addition, the investigators aim to visualize these changes in the brain because of priming, possibly altered network-organisation.
Nearly 100 million Americans are affected by neurological disorders with an overall cost above $765 billion for the more prevalent conditions. Given this significant burden, effective treatments to prevent dementia and new disease modifying therapies are urgently needed. Regeneration of lost neurons with new ones (i.e., neurogenesis) is compromised at early stages of dementia and in part correlates with cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease. Boosting the neurogenesis delays the cognitive impairment in animal models of dementia and has been proven beneficial in improving the memory in rodent studies. Aerobic exercise is the most potent known stimulator of neurogenesis in animal models. A crucial next step is to translate endogenous regenerative strategies to people. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility and investigate the effects of an exercise program on neurogenesis and cognitive improvement in epilepsy patients.
The Multidisciplinary Expert System for the Assessment & Management of Complex Brain Disorders (MES-CoBraD) is an interdisciplinary project combining Real-World Data (RWD) from multiple clinical and consumer sources through comprehensive, cost-efficient, and fast protocols towards improving diagnostic accuracy and therapeutic outcomes in people with Complex Brain Disorders (CoBraD), as reflected in Neurocognitive (Dementia), Sleep, and Seizure (Epilepsy) disorders and their interdependence. It brings together internationally recognized experts in medicine, engineering, computer science, social health science, law, and marketing and communication from across Europe, and combines clinical information and scientific research in CoBraD with technical innovation in secure data-sharing platforms, artificial intelligence algorithms, and expert systems of precision and personalized care, with a primary focus on improving the quality of life of patients, their caregivers, and the society at large. It leverages RWD from diverse CoBraD populations across cultural, socioeconomic, educational, and health system backgrounds, with special attention on including vulnerable populations and minorities in an equitable manner and engaging key stakeholders to maximize project impact.