AUTHOR=Pittau Francesca , Mégevand Pierre , Sheybani Laurent , Abela Eugenio , Grouiller Frédéric , Spinelli Laurent , Michel Christoph M. , Seeck Margitta , Vulliemoz Serge TITLE=Mapping Epileptic Activity: Sources or Networks for the Clinicians? JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology VOLUME=5 YEAR=2014 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2014.00218 DOI=10.3389/fneur.2014.00218 ISSN=1664-2295 ABSTRACT=

Epileptic seizures of focal origin are classically considered to arise from a focal epileptogenic zone and then spread to other brain regions. This is a key concept for semiological electro-clinical correlations, localization of relevant structural lesions, and selection of patients for epilepsy surgery. Recent development in neuro-imaging and electro-physiology and combinations, thereof, have been validated as contributory tools for focus localization. In parallel, these techniques have revealed that widespread networks of brain regions, rather than a single epileptogenic region, are implicated in focal epileptic activity. Sophisticated multimodal imaging and analysis strategies of brain connectivity patterns have been developed to characterize the spatio-temporal relationships within these networks by combining the strength of both techniques to optimize spatial and temporal resolution with whole-brain coverage and directional connectivity. In this paper, we review the potential clinical contribution of these functional mapping techniques as well as invasive electrophysiology in human beings and animal models for characterizing network connectivity.