Multimodal neuroimaging studies
We leverage multiple MRI platforms, including the only 7T MRI scanner in Quebec to study causes and consequences of epilepsy and to map brain networks implicated in cognitive function and dysfunction. We also utilize high resolution PET scanning to measure glucose metabolism as well as amyloid and tau, to better identify seizure generating regions, pathological deposits, and functional imbalances. Conducting neuroimaging studies before and after surgery, we seek to identify prognostic markers and look at the reorganization of brain networks following interventions.
Cutting-edge Sleep EEG Lab and high-resolution EEG
The centre boasts a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) funded sleep laboratory to study the interactions between epilepsy, cognition, and sleep. The team also obtained CFI funding for high-resolution EEG equipment that can measure brain dynamics while patients with epilepsy undergo other neuroimaging examinations, and that allows for non-invasive neuromodulation of seizure-generating brain networks in surgical candidates. We are currently exploring EEG-fMRI studies at 7T to identify spike-associated functional brain networks as one of the first institutions in the world.
High-throughput computation
High-throughput computational resources were recently installed using CFI funds, and are being leveraged to obtain realistic models of brain connectivity in single patients. These can inform about possible patterns of seizure spread and pathways that can be influenced by neuromodulatory treatments. Using our advanced computational infrastructure, we are also developing cutting-edge AI models to identify epileptogenic lesions in patients that otherwise show unremarkable neuroimaging.
Lifespan approaches
Hundreds of patients with epilepsy, both pediatric and adult, are currently investigated with multimodal techniques at the Neuro and at pediatric hospitals in the greater Montreal area (Montreal Children’s Hospital, CHU St Justine). In these patients, the data and information gathered by our research studies provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand how epilepsy affects the entire lifespan and to improve clinical decision-making for individual patients.
Open science
Our teams are at the forefront of making data and tools openly available to the community, for more transparent and rapid discovery and validation of findings. We developed open software for multimodal data processing (http://micapipe.readthedocs.io) and are currently developing normative modelling approaches of patient-based lesion detection (http://z-brains.readthedocs.io). Our researchers have furthermore developed cutting edge data warehouses for the analysis of the hippocampal formation (http://hippomaps.readthedocs.io), a region that gives rise to seizures in many patients and is frequently implicated in cognitive dysfunction. Moreover, our researchers play a leading role in large international consortia, for example ENIGMA-Epilepsy, that aggregates patient and control neuroimaging and genetics datasets in thousands of individuals.
