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The research program in the Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is multifaceted, reflecting the interests of the ten faculty members in the center. We are investigating various aspects of epilepsy, including novel treatments, autonomic effects of seizures, electrophysiology of seizures, new approaches to neuroimaging, and developing improved methods of prognostication in epilepsy. Pharmacologic studies investigate the metabolic consequences of antiepileptic medication, with specific attention to serologic markers of vascular risk. Neuroimaging studies are exploring connections between different brain areas in epilepsy, cognitive organization, memory, and language function in epilepsy. Electrographic studies of seizures hope to improve methods for mapping seizure spread within the brain with the goal of defining abnormal circuitry in epilepsy. Autonomic studies investigate cardiac rhythm disturbances in epilepsy, with companion epidemiologic studies of mortality in epilepsy. Long-term outcome studies of epilepsy surgery explore the consequences of cortical resection for this condition in medical, cognitive, linguistic, and psychosocial domains.
The techniques used in our research are those used in clinical studies, including MRI, fMRI, EEG, metabolic and pharmacologic measures, and epidemiologic methods.
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