Projekt

The aim of the project is to advance the understanding of neuronal dynamics in the brain of epilepsy patients. Many basic mechanisms of the disease epilepsy remain poorly understood. What interactions between neurons underlie epileptic seizures? Is the transition to a seizure abrupt and unpredictable, or does it involve detectable pre-seizure states? To address these and other problems, in-vivo microelectrode recordings from epilepsy patients will be analysed. The acquisition and study of these microelectrode recordings is subject of the ongoing main project. Previous studies in this field are based on classical, linear signal analysis and the visual inspection of the microelectrode signals. However, it was shown that nonlinear signal analysis has decisive advantages over linear analysis in the study of conventional electrophysiological recordings from epilepsy patients. Therefore, nonlinear analysis will be applied to microelectrode recordings. Additionally, further methods will be devised for this project. These novel methods will be applicable to various experimental signals and thus have general scientific impact beyond this project.

• Prof. Dr. Dr. Florian Mormann

  Universität Bonn
  Medizinische Fakultät
  Universitätsklinik für Epileptologie
  Bonn
  

• Prof. Dr. Ralph Gregor Andrzejak

  Universitat Pompeu Fabra
  Department of Information and
  Communication Technologies
  Barcelona
  Spanien