An Intracranial Electroencephalography (iEEG) Brain Function Mapping Tool with an Application to Epilepsy Surgery...

Area of Science:

• Neurosurgery
• Medical Imaging
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• Intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) is crucial for epilepsy surgery, aiding in function mapping and identifying the epileptogenic zone.
• Current clinical workflows lack a dedicated, user-friendly tool for registering iEEG electrode positions and visualizing brain function mapping (BFM).
• This gap hinders efficient surgical planning and precise resection of seizure-generating areas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel Brain Function Mapping (BFM) Tool for clinical application in epilepsy surgery.
• To provide a convenient solution for electrode position registration and BFM visualization.
• To enhance the utility of iEEG data in surgical decision-making.

Main Methods:

• The BFM Tool integrates pre-defined brain models for electrode location registration and function mapping.
• It offers adjustable visualization parameters (node size/color, edge properties) via an intuitive setting panel.
• The software supports manual import/export of location and connectivity data for flexible analysis and figure generation.

Main Results:

• The BFM Tool enables clinicians and researchers to visualize implanted electrodes and brain functions efficiently.
• It provides an easy, quick, and flexible method for data interpretation.
• Demonstrated utility in a clinical case study for language area localization.

Conclusions:

• The developed BFM Tool offers convenient electrode registration and straightforward brain function visualization.
• It exhibits good performance, is clinically oriented, and easy to deploy and use.
• The tool is suitable for epilepsy surgery and other clinical iEEG applications.