Noninvasive localization of electromagnetic epileptic activity. II. Demonstration of sublobar accuracy in patients...

Seven patients with complex partial epileptic seizures undergoing invasive video/EEG-monitoring were investigated with a combination of 10 subdural strip electrode contacts (subtemporal + lateral temporal), and 22 extracranial recording sites. In each patient spikes with different intracranial distributions were identified, and for those with similar distributions the extracranial activity was averaged. A new inverse solution method called EPIFOCUS (Grave et al. 2001, this issue) was used to reconstruct the sources of both single and averaged spikes in a standard 3D-MRI, and a statistical analysis was performed in order to demonstrate location differences between spikes with different intracranial distributions. The results revealed significantly more anterior and ventral source locations for subtemporal compared to lateral temporal spikes. Within the subtemporal group, medial spikes had more mesial and dorsal locations compared to lateral ones. In the lateral temporal group, more anterior and ventral locations were obtained for anterior compared to posterior spikes. The results demonstrate the applicability of EPIFOCUS in the localization of sources in the temporal lobe with sublobar accuracy. This possibility may become important in the future, for instance in identifying cases where amygdalo-hippocampectomy or other limited temporal lobe resections may replace the standard en bloc resections.