arXiv subjects

John S Duncan

Publications and source records attributed to John S Duncan.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Open diffusion MRI and connectivity data for epilepsy and surgery: The IDEAS II release

Epileptic seizures are generated in cerebral networks that propagate ictal and interictal activity. The structure of cerebral networks underpinning epileptic activity can be inferred from diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI). However, publicly available DWI data in individuals with epilepsy are scarce, and processing is technically challenging due to scan-specific artifacts, limiting research progress. Here, we release raw DWI data from 216 individuals with epilepsy and 98 healthy controls. Subject identifiers align with our previous data release (IDEAS), which includes T1-weighted and FLAIR MRI, surgical details, and long-term seizure outcomes after surgery. Preprocessing reduced distortions and artifacts, while fully processed data include diffusion metric maps in native and template space. We also provide parcellated structural connectomes using multiple atlases and connectivity measures. To illustrate the utility of this IDEAS II data, we replicated ENIGMA consortium findings, observing widespread reductions of fractional anisotropy, particularly ipsilateral to the area of seizure onset. We further demonstrate localised abnormality, and network connectivity using streamline tractography in a patient who subsequently underwent temporal lobe resection. This open dataset offers a comprehensive resource to advance research on structural connectivity and surgical outcomes in epilepsy.

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arXiv2025

Anti-seizure medication load is not correlated with early termination of seizure spread

Objective: Anti-seizure medications (ASMs) are the mainstay of treatment for epilepsy, yet their effect on seizure spread is not fully understood. Higher ASM doses have been associated with shorter and less severe seizures. We aimed to test if this effect was due to limiting seizure spread through early termination of otherwise unchanged seizures. Methods: We retrospectively examined intracranial EEG (iEEG) recordings in 15 subjects who underwent ASM tapering during pre-surgical monitoring. We estimated ASM plasma concentrations based on pharmaco-kinetic modeling. In each subject, we identified seizures that followed the same onset and initial spread patterns, but some seizures terminated early (truncated seizures), and other seizures continued to spread (continuing seizures). We first compared seizure duration to ASM concentration for all seizures and the subset of seizures included in truncated-continuing pairs. Then we compared durations of the matched truncated and continuing seizures. Finally, we compared ASM concentrations at the times of truncated seizures and continuing seizures. Results: Seizure durations were found to be significantly longer at lower ASM concentrations. Continuing seizures were significantly longer in duration than matched truncated seizures. We found no substantial difference between ASM concentrations when truncated vs. continuing seizures occurred. Significance: The lack of difference between ASM concentrations at the time of truncated vs. continuing seizures implies a separate mechanism for shortening the duration of seizures beyond stopping the spread pathways early. Additionally, the mechanism causing seizures to be truncated remains unclear. Further research is needed to understand how ASM may modulate seizure duration and severity.

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arXiv2025

Brain Morphology Normative modelling platform for abnormality and Centile estimation: Brain MoNoCle

Normative models of brain structure estimate the effects of covariates such as age and sex using large samples of healthy controls. These models can then be applied to e.g. smaller clinical cohorts to distinguish disease effects from other covariates. However, these advanced statistical modelling approaches can be difficult to access, and processing large healthy cohorts is computationally demanding. Thus, accessible platforms with pre-trained normative models are needed. We present such a platform for brain morphology analysis as an open-source web application https://cnnplab.shinyapps.io/BrainMoNoCle/, with six key features: (i) user-friendly web interface, (ii) individual and group outputs, (iii) multi-site analysis, (iv) regional and whole-brain analysis, (v) integration with existing tools, and (vi) featuring multiple morphology metrics. Using a diverse sample of 3,276 healthy controls across 21 sites, we pre-trained normative models on various metrics. We validated the models with a small sample of individuals with bipolar disorder, showing outputs that aligned closely with existing literature only after applying our normative modelling. Using a cohort of people with temporal lobe epilepsy, we showed that individual-level abnormalities were in line with seizure lateralisation. Finally, with the ability to investigate multiple morphology measures in the same framework, we found that biological covariates are better explained in specific morphology measures, and for applications, only some measures are sensitive to the disease process. Our platform offers a comprehensive framework to analyse brain morphology in clinical and research settings. Validations confirm the superiority of normative models and the advantage of investigating a range of brain morphology metrics together.

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arXiv2024

Anti-seizure medication tapering correlates with daytime delta band power reduction in the cortex

Anti-seizure medications (ASMs) are the primary treatment for epilepsy, yet medication tapering effects have not been investigated in a dose, region, and time-dependent manner, despite their potential impact on research and clinical practice. We examined over 3000 hours of intracranial EEG recordings in 32 subjects during long-term monitoring, of which 22 underwent concurrent ASM tapering. We estimated ASM plasma levels based on known pharmaco-kinetics of all the major ASM types. We found an overall decrease in the power of delta band activity around the period of maximum medication withdrawal in most (80%) subjects, independent of their epilepsy type or medication combination. The degree of withdrawal correlated positively with the magnitude of delta power decrease. This dose-dependent effect was evident across all recorded cortical regions during daytime; but not in sub-cortical regions, or during night time. We found no evidence of a differential effect in seizure onset, spiking, or pathological brain regions. The finding of decreased delta band power during ASM tapering agrees with previous literature. Our observed dose-dependent effect indicates that monitoring ASM levels in cortical regions may be feasible for applications such as medication reminder systems, or closed-loop ASM delivery systems. ASMs are also used in other neurological and psychiatric conditions, making our findings relevant to a general neuroscience and neurology audience.

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arXiv2024

Diminished circadian and ultradian rhythms of human brain activity in pathological tissue in vivo

Chronobiological rhythms, such as the circadian rhythm, have long been linked to neurological disorders, but it is currently unknown how pathological processes affect the expression of biological rhythms in the brain. Here, we use the unique opportunity of long-term, continuous intracranially recorded EEG from 38 patients (totalling 6338 hours) to delineate circadian (daily) and ultradian (minute to hourly) rhythms in different brain regions. We show that functional circadian and ultradian rhythms are diminished in pathological tissue, independent of regional variations. We further demonstrate that these diminished rhythms are persistent in time, regardless of load or occurrence of pathological events. These findings provide evidence that brain pathology is functionally associated with persistently diminished chronobiological rhythms in vivo in humans, independent of regional variations or pathological events. Future work interacting with, and restoring, these modulatory chronobiological rhythms may allow for novel therapies.

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arXiv2024

The Imaging Database for Epilepsy And Surgery (IDEAS)

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a crucial tool to identify brain abnormalities in a wide range of neurological disorders. In focal epilepsy MRI is used to identify structural cerebral abnormalities. For covert lesions, machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms may improve lesion detection if abnormalities are not evident on visual inspection. The success of this approach depends on the volume and quality of training data. Herein, we release an open-source dataset of preprocessed MRI scans from 442 individuals with drug-refractory focal epilepsy who had neurosurgical resections, and detailed demographic information. The MRI scan data includes the preoperative 3D T1 and where available 3D FLAIR, as well as a manually inspected complete surface reconstruction and volumetric parcellations. Demographic information includes age, sex, age of onset of epilepsy, location of surgery, histopathology of resected specimen, occurrence and frequency of focal seizures with and without impairment of awareness, focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures, number of anti-seizure medications (ASMs) at time of surgery, and a total of 1764 patient years of post-surgical follow up. Crucially, we also include resection masks delineated from post-surgical imaging. To demonstrate the veracity of our data, we successfully replicated previous studies showing long-term outcomes of seizure freedom in the range of around 50%. Our imaging data replicates findings of group level atrophy in patients compared to controls. Resection locations in the cohort were predominantly in the temporal and frontal lobes. We envisage our dataset, shared openly with the community, will catalyse the development and application of computational methods in clinical neurology.

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arXiv2024

Alpha rhythm slowing in temporal epilepsy across Scalp EEG and MEG

EEG slowing is reported in various neurological disorders including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Epilepsy. Here, we investigate alpha rhythm slowing in individuals with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), compared to healthy controls, using scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). We retrospectively analysed data from 17,(46) healthy controls and 22,(24) individuals with TLE who underwent scalp EEG and (MEG) recordings as part of presurgical evaluation. Resting-state, eyes-closed recordings were source reconstructed using the standardized low-resolution brain electrographic tomography (sLORETA) method. We extracted low (slow) 6-9 Hz and high (fast) 10-11 Hz alpha relative band power and calculated the alpha power ratio by dividing low (slow) alpha by high (fast) alpha. This ratio was computed for all brain regions in all individuals. Alpha oscillations were slower in individuals with TLE than controls (p<0.05). This effect was present in both the ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres, and across widespread brain regions. Alpha slowing in TLE was found in both EEG and MEG recordings. We interpret greater low (slow)-alpha as greater deviation from health.

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arXiv2023

Complementary structural and functional abnormalities to localise epileptogenic tissue

When investigating suitability for surgery, people with drug-refractory focal epilepsy may have intracranial EEG (iEEG) electrodes implanted to localise seizure onset. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) may be acquired to identify key white matter tracts for surgical avoidance. Here, we investigate whether structural connectivity abnormalities, inferred from dMRI, may be used in conjunction with functional iEEG abnormalities to aid localisation and resection of the epileptogenic zone (EZ), and improve surgical outcomes in epilepsy. We retrospectively investigated data from 43 patients with epilepsy who had surgery following iEEG. Twenty five patients (58%) were free from disabling seizures (ILAE 1 or 2) at one year. For all patients, T1-weighted and diffusion-weighted MRIs were acquired prior to iEEG implantation. Interictal iEEG functional, and dMRI structural connectivity abnormalities were quantified by comparison to a normative map and healthy controls respectively. First, we explored whether the resection of maximal (dMRI and iEEG) abnormalities related to improved surgical outcomes. Second, we investigated whether the modalities provided complementary information for improved prediction of surgical outcome. Third, we suggest how dMRI abnormalities may be useful to inform the placement of iEEG electrodes as part of the pre-surgical evaluation using a patient case study. Seizure freedom was 15 times more likely in those patients with resection of maximal dMRI and iEEG abnormalities (p=0.008). Both modalities were separately able to distinguish patient outcome groups and when combined, a decision tree correctly separated 36 out of 43 (84%) patients based on surgical outcome. Structural dMRI could be used in pre-surgical evaluations, particularly when localisation of the EZ is uncertain, to inform personalised iEEG implantation and resection.

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arXiv2023

Normative brain mapping using scalp EEG and potential clinical application

A normative electrographic activity map could be a powerful resource to understand normal brain function and identify abnormal activity. Here, we present a normative brain map using scalp EEG in terms of relative band power. In this exploratory study we investigate its temporal stability, its similarity to other imaging modalities, and explore a potential clinical application. We constructed scalp EEG normative maps of brain dynamics from 17 healthy controls using source-localised resting-state scalp recordings. We then correlated these maps with those acquired from MEG and intracranial EEG to investigate their similarity. Lastly, we use the normative maps to lateralise abnormal regions in epilepsy. Spatial patterns of band powers were broadly consistent with previous literature and stable across recordings. Scalp EEG normative maps were most similar to other modalities in the alpha band, and relatively similar across most bands. Towards a clinical application in epilepsy, we found abnormal temporal regions ipsilateral to the epileptogenic hemisphere. Scalp EEG relative band power normative maps are spatially stable across time, in keeping with MEG and intracranial EEG results. Normative mapping is feasible and may be potentially clinically useful in epilepsy. Future studies with larger sample sizes and high-density EEG are now required for validation.

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arXiv2023

Temporal stability of intracranial EEG abnormality maps for localising epileptogenic tissue

Objective: Identifying abnormalities in interictal intracranial EEG, by comparing patient data to a normative map, has shown promise for the localisation of epileptogenic tissue and prediction of outcome. The approach typically uses short interictal segments of around one minute. However, the temporal stability of findings has not been established. Methods: Here, we generated a normative map of iEEG in non-pathological brain tissue from 249 patients. We computed regional band power abnormalities in a separate cohort of 39 patients for the duration of their monitoring period (0.92-8.62 days of iEEG data, mean 4.58 days per patient, over 4,800 hours recording). To assess the localising value of band power abnormality, we computed DRS - a measure of how different the surgically resected and spared tissue were in terms of band power abnormalities - over time. Results: In each patient, band power abnormality was relatively consistent over time. The median DRS of the entire recording period separated seizure free (ILAE = 1) and not seizure free (ILAE > 1) patients well (AUC = 0.69). This effect was similar interictally (AUC = 0.69) and peri-ictally (AUC = 0.71). Significance: Our results suggest that band power abnormality DRS, as a predictor of outcomes from epilepsy surgery, is a relatively robust metric over time. These findings add further support for abnormality mapping of neurophysiology data during presurgical evaluation.

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arXiv2022

Effects of anterior temporal lobe resection on cortical morphology

Anterior temporal lobe resection (ATLR) is a surgical procedure to treat drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Resection may involve large amounts of cortical tissue. Here, we examine the effects of this surgery on cortical morphology measured in independent variables both near the resection and remotely. We studied 101 individuals with TLE (55 left, 46 right onset) who underwent ATLR. For each individual we considered one pre-surgical MRI and one follow-up MRI 2 to 13 months after surgery. We used our newly developed surface-based method to locally compute traditional morphological variables (average cortical thickness, exposed surface area, and total surface area), and the independent measures $K$, $I$, and $S$, where $K$ measures white matter tension, $I$ captures isometric scaling, and $S$ contains the remaining information about cortical shape. Data from 924 healthy controls was included to account for healthy ageing effects occurring during scans. A SurfStat random field theory clustering approach assessed changes across the cortex caused by ATLR. Compared to preoperative data, surgery had marked effects on all morphological measures. Ipsilateral effects were located in the orbitofrontal and inferior frontal gyri, the pre- and postcentral gyri and supramarginal gyrus, and the lateral occipital gyrus and lingual cortex. Contralateral effects were in the lateral occipital gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus and frontal pole. The restructuring following ATLR is reflected in widespread morphological changes, mainly in regions near the resection, but also remotely in regions that are structurally connected to the anterior temporal lobe. The causes could include mechanical effects, Wallerian degeneration, or compensatory plasticity. The study of independent measures revealed additional effects compared to traditional measures.

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arXiv2022

Normative brain mapping of interictal intracranial EEG to localise epileptogenic tissue

The identification of abnormal electrographic activity is important in a wide range of neurological disorders, including epilepsy for localising epileptogenic tissue. However, this identification may be challenging during non-seizure (interictal) periods, especially if abnormalities are subtle compared to the repertoire of possible healthy brain dynamics. Here, we investigate if such interictal abnormalities become more salient by quantitatively accounting for the range of healthy brain dynamics in a location-specific manner. To this end, we constructed a normative map of brain dynamics, in terms of relative band power, from interictal intracranial recordings from 234 subjects (21,598 electrode contacts). We then compared interictal recordings from 62 patients with epilepsy to the normative map to identify abnormal regions. We hypothesised that if the most abnormal regions were spared by surgery, then patients would be more likely to experience continued seizures post-operatively. We first confirmed that the spatial variations of band power in the normative map across brain regions were consistent with healthy variations reported in the literature. Second, when accounting for the normative variations, regions which were spared by surgery were more abnormal than those resected only in patients with persistent post-operative seizures (t=-3.6, p=0.0003), confirming our hypothesis. Third, we found that this effect discriminated patient outcomes (AUC=0.75 p=0.0003). Normative mapping is a well-established practice in neuroscientific research. Our study suggests that this approach is feasible to detect interictal abnormalities in intracranial EEG, and of potential clinical value to identify pathological tissue in epilepsy. Finally, we make our normative intracranial map publicly available to facilitate future investigations in epilepsy and beyond.

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arXiv2020

Independent components of human brain morphology

Quantification of brain morphology has become an important cornerstone in understanding brain structure. Measures of cortical morphology such as thickness and surface area are frequently used to compare groups of subjects or characterise longitudinal changes. However, such measures are often treated as independent from each other. A recently described scaling law, derived from a statistical physics model of cortical folding, demonstrates that there is a tight covariance between three commonly used cortical morphology measures: cortical thickness, total surface area, and exposed surface area. We show that assuming the independence of cortical morphology measures can hide features and potentially lead to misinterpretations. Using the scaling law, we account for the covariance between cortical morphology measures and derive novel independent measures of cortical morphology. By applying these new measures, we show that new information can be gained; in our example we show that distinct morphological alterations underlie healthy ageing compared to temporal lobe epilepsy, even on the coarse level of a whole hemisphere. We thus provide a conceptual framework for characterising cortical morphology in a statistically valid and interpretable manner, based on theoretical reasoning about the shape of the cortex.

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arXiv2018

The impact of epilepsy surgery on the structural connectome and its relation to outcome

Temporal lobe surgical resection brings seizure remission in up to 80% of patients, with long-term complete seizure freedom in 41%. However, it is unclear how surgery impacts on the structural white matter network, and how the network changes relate to seizure outcome. We used white matter fibre tractography on preoperative diffusion MRI to generate a structural white matter network, and postoperative T1-weighted MRI to retrospectively infer the impact of surgical resection on this network. We then applied graph theory and machine learning to investigate the properties of change between the preoperative and predicted postoperative networks. Temporal lobe surgery had a modest impact on global network efficiency, despite the disruption caused. This was due to alternative shortest paths in the network leading to widespread increases in betweenness centrality post-surgery. Measurements of network change could retrospectively predict seizure outcomes with 79% accuracy and 65% specificity, which is twice as high as the empirical distribution. Fifteen connections which changed due to surgery were identified as useful for prediction of outcome, eight of which connected to the ipsilateral temporal pole. Our results suggest that the use of network change metrics may have clinical value for predicting seizure outcome. This approach could be used to prospectively predict outcomes given a suggested resection mask using preoperative data only.

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