How virtual models of the brain could transform epilepsy surgery

An MRI scan showing the brain of a person with epilepsy.Credit: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Virtual models representing the brains of people with epilepsy could help to enable more-effective treatments of the disease by showing neurosurgeons precisely which zones are responsible for seizures. The models, created using a computational system known as the Virtual Epileptic Patient (VEP), have been developed as part of the Human Brain Project (HBP), a 10-year European initiative focused on digital brain research. The approach is being tested in a clinical trial called EPINOV, to evaluate whether it improves the success rate of epilepsy surgeries. "It's an example of personalized medicine," says Aswin Chari, a neurosurgeon at University College London. VEP uses "the patient's own brain scans [and] the patient's own brainwave-recording data to build a model and improve our understanding of where their seizures are coming from".