Using deep brain stimulation techniques, neuroscientists at Mayo Clinic are looking for early signals in the brain to help stop seizures. In their biomarker discovery initiative, a team of researchers is assessing how different stimulation patterns affect different parts of the brain.

The goal, says Dr. Jonathon Parker, a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon, is to personalize therapeutic brain stimulation settings for individual patients with epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

When there's a mystery, it's crucial to find a clue.

"We're looking for that brain signal fingerprint, if you will, that, yes, these are the right stimulation settings that are pushing the brain toward a state where seizures are less likely," says Dr. Parker, director of the Device-Based Neuroelectronics Research Lab at Mayo Clinic.

A seizure is like an electrical storm in the brain. Epilepsy is the most common cause of seizures.

"For patients having multiple attacks, sometimes per day or per week, if we're able to dramatically reduce them, it allows them to live their life in a much more predictable fashion, easier for them to do the things that they like to do in life without having to live in fear of these uncontrolled neurological attacks," Dr. Parker says.

For a third of patients with epilepsy, medication does not control their seizures. Some patients are able to have surgery to remove brain tissue where their seizures start if doing so does not damage parts of the brain that, for example, control speech or motor skills.

Other types of treatments, including deep brain stimulation, may be appropriate for some patients. Deep brain stimulation involves implanting electrodes in the brain that produce electrical impulses to treat certain medical conditions, such as epilepsy.

In the setting of a research protocol, Mayo Clinic scientists like Dr. Parker are studying how different parts of the brain respond to different stimulation patterns to potentially reduce and stop patients' seizures.

"What we'd like to do is dial in and understand for individual patients, for their brain, for their epilepsy, what is the best parameter, what is the best setting for them," Dr. Parker says.

The team includes engineers, clinicians and neuroscientists who analyze the brain's electrical signals and extract meaning for the right settings for an individual patient's deep brain stimulation device.

"Our moonshot goal is to use therapeutic stimulation to completely stop seizures," Dr. Parker says. "This is what we are working toward — to return control and predictability to our patients' lives."

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