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Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a noninvasive imaging method for measuring the diffusion properties of the underlying white matter tracts through which epileptiform activity is propagated. This study investigates the structural abnormalities quantified by DTI in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE). Fiber tracts passing through 54 anatomical sites in 12 adult mTLE patients and 12 age- and gender-matched controls were identified using DTI tractography. DTI nodal degree (ND) and laterality index were then calculated. ND laterality, after Bonferroni adjustment, showed significant differences for right versus left mTLE in gyrus rectus, insular cortex, precuneus and superior temporal gyrus (p<;0.025). None of these anatomical sites showed statistically significant differences in ND laterality between right and left sides of the controls. Laterality models determined by logistic regression on the ND laterality data agreed with the side of epileptogenicity as it pertained to the gyrus rectus, insular cortex, precuneus and superior temporal gyrus for 89%, 72%, 83% and 92% of the patients, respectively. Combining the laterality measures in these four anatomical sites improved the results further with correct lateralization of 100% for all patients. The proposed methodology for using DTI connectivity to investigate diffusion abnormalities related to focal epileptogenicity and propagation can provide a further means of noninvasive lateralization.

A prerequisite of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) surgery is to lateralize the disease. Recent studies have shown the capability of diffusion weighted MRI (DWMRI) in lateralizing TLE patients. This has been achieved by analyzing diffusion parameters of specific white matter tracts or regions known to be involved in the disease; however, other brain regions and connections have not been investigated for TLE lateralization. Whole brain structural connectivity using DWMRI provides a wealth of information regarding the structural connections in the brain. This information can be explored to find the most effective connections for TLE lateralization. In this work, we investigate the connectivity matrices calculated from DWMRI of 10 left and 10 right TLE patients to find the most effective connections for lateralizing the disease. Linear support vector machine (LSVM) classifier and leave-one-out cross validation scheme are used to estimate classification performance of the connectivity feature subsets. A subset of three connections with 100% classification accuracy is found. The corresponding LSVM classifier may be used to lateralize prospective TLE patients.

Neural degeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) leads to structural topology deformation that in turn changes brain functionality. The main aim of the present study is to find the brain's functional connectivity network (FCN) correlates of Alzheimer's psychological test scores. To this end, the brain's FCN is extracted from the resting state functional magnetic resonance images (rs-fMRI) of healthy controls and patients with AD and represented as a graph. Then, network measures are calculated from the graphs. The correlations between the brain network measures and five AD psychological assessment test scores are evaluated. The results show positive correlation between the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and nodal strength in the left insula and negative correlation between the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score and local efficiency of left olfactory cortex and also eigenvector centrality of left supramarginal cortex. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) also seems to be correlated with network measures of the left superior parietal gyrus. Moreover, notable decreased continuity are spotted in the limbic system. These measures can be used to provide an objective tool for AD diagnosis.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a noninvasive imaging method for localization of focal epileptiform activity in patients with epilepsy. This study investigates the cerebral functional abnormalities quantified by MEG coherence laterality in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE). Resting state MEG data was analyzed using MEG coherence source imaging (MEG-CSI) method to determine the coherence in 54 anatomical sites in 12 adult mTLE patients and 12 age- and gender-matched controls. MEG coherence laterality, after Bonferroni adjustment, showed significant differences for right versus left mTLE in insular cortex and both lateral orbitofrontal and superior temporal gyri (p<;0.025). None of these anatomical sites showed statistically significant differences in coherence laterality between right and left sides of controls. Coherence laterality was in agreement with the declared side of epileptogenicity in insular cortex (in 75% of patients) and both lateral orbitofrontal (83%) and superior temporal gyri (84%). Combining all significant laterality indices improved the lateralization accuracy to 92%. The proposed methodology for using MEG to investigate the abnormalities related to focal epileptogenicity and propagation can provide a further means of noninvasive lateralization.

Hippocampus segmentation is a key step in the evaluation of mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (mTLE) by MR images. Several automated segmentation methods have been introduced for medical image segmentation. Because of multiple edges, missing boundaries, and shape changing along its longitudinal axis, manual outlining still remains the benchmark for hippocampus segmentation, which however, is impractical for large datasets due to time constraints. In this study, four automatic methods, namely FreeSurfer, Hammer, Automatic Brain Structure Segmentation (ABSS), and LocalInfo segmentation, are evaluated to find the most accurate and applicable method that resembles the bench-mark of hippocampus. Results from these four methods are compared against those obtained using manual segmentation for T1-weighted images of 157 symptomatic mTLE patients. For performance evaluation of automatic segmentation, Dice coefficient, Hausdorff distance, Precision, and Root Mean Square (RMS) distance are extracted and compared. Among these four automated methods, ABSS generates the most accurate results and the reproducibility is more similar to expert manual outlining by statistical validation. By considering p-value<;0.05, the results of performance measurement for ABSS reveal that, Dice is 4%, 13%, and 17% higher, Hausdorff is 23%, 87%, and 70% lower, precision is 5%, -5%, and 12% higher, and RMS is 19%, 62%, and 65% lower compared to LocalInfo, FreeSurfer, and Hammer, respectively.

Surgical treatment is suggested for seizure control in medically intractable epilepsy patients. Detailed pre-surgical evaluation and lateralization using Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) is expected to result in a successful surgical outcome. In this study, an optimized pattern recognition approach is proposed for lateralization of mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (mTLE) patients using asymmetry of imaging indices of hippocampus. T1-weighted and Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) images of 76 symptomatic mTLE patients are considered. First, hippocampus is segmented using automatic and manual segmentation methods; then, volumetric and intensity features are extracted from the MR images. A nonlinear Support Vector Machine (SVM) with optimized Gaussian Radial Basis Function (GRBF) kernel is used to classify the imaging features. Using leave-one-out cross validation, this method results in a correct lateralization rate of 82%, a probability of detection for the left side of 0.90 (with false alarm probability of 0.04) and a probability of detection for the right side of 0.69 (with zero false alarm probability). The lateralization results are compared to linear SVM, multi-layer perceptron Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and volumetry and FLAIR asymmetry analysis. This lateralization method is suggested for pre-surgical evaluation using MRI before surgical treatment in mTLE patients. It achieves a more correct lateralization rate and fewer false positives.

We have developed response-driven multinomial models, based on multivariate imaging features, to lateralize the epileptogenicity in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients. To this end, volumetrics and statistical quantities of FLAIR intensity and normalized ictal-interictal SPECT intensity on left and right hippocampi were extracted from preoperative images of forty-five retrospective TLE patients with surgical outcome of Engel class l. Using multinomial logistic function regression, the parameters of various univariate and multivariate models were estimated. Among univariate response models, the response model with SPECT attributes and response model with mean FLAIR attributes achieved the lowest fit deviance (65.1±0.2 and 65.5±0.3, respectively). They resulted in the highest probability of detection (0.82) and lowest probability of false alarm (0.02) for the epileptogenic side. The multivariate response model with incorporating all volumetrics, mean and standard deviation FLAIR, and SPECT attributes achieved a significantly lower fit deviance than other response models (11.9±0.1, p <; 0.001). It reached probability of detection of 1 with no false alarms. We were able to correctly lateralize the fifteen TLE patients who had undergone phase II intracranial monitoring. Therefore, the phase II intracranial monitoring might have been avoided for this set of patients. Based on this lateralization response model, the side of epileptogenicity was also detected for all thirty patients who had preceded to resection with only phase I of EEG monitoring. In conclusion, the proposed multinomial multivariate response-driven model for lateralization of epileptogenicity in TLE patients can help in decision-making prior to surgical resection and may reduce the need for implantation of intracranial monitoring electrodes.

This work illustrates that DKI reveals white matter lesions and also discriminates healthy subjects from patients with white matter lesions. To show this capability, we have investigated DKI images of a healthy subject and a patient with white matter lesions. The analysis was performed both between and within subjects. Regions of Interest (ROIs) for lesion and normal white matter in the patient images are selected manually (for within subject study) and also the corresponding ROIs in the healthy subject are defined (for between subject study). The results of comparing the estimated values for apparent diffusion and kurtosis parameters show that both D(app) and K(app) can distinguish normal and abnormal tissues. K(app) (D(app)) of the normal regions is greater (lower) than that of the abnormal regions. Another investigation over all voxels in the brain shows an important feature of kurtosis in determining white matter lesions.

A temporal point process is a stochastic time series of binary events that occurs in continuous time. In computational neuroscience, the point process is used to model neuronal spiking activity; however, estimating the model parameters from spike train is a challenging problem. The state space point process filtering theory is a new technique for the estimation of the states and parameters. In order to use the stochastic filtering theory for the states of neuronal system with the Gaussian assumption, we apply the extended Kalman filter. In this regard, the extended Kalman filtering equations are derived for the point process observation. We illustrate the new filtering algorithm by estimating the effect of visual stimulus on the spiking activity of object selective neurons from the inferior temporal cortex of macaque monkey. Based on the goodness-offit assessment, the extended Kalman filter provides more accurate state estimate than the conventional methods.