The role of diffusion MRI in Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a prevalent neurological disorder with various causes and clinical manifestations. Neuroimaging has played a crucial role in identifying lesions that cause seizures. Interestingly, some forms of focal epilepsy that result from specific anatomical and functional alterations also reveal widespread abnormalities. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) and its derived methods, including tractography and connectomics, have helped us understand these forms of epilepsy as network disorders with far-reaching neurological and cognitive consequences. Furthermore, dMRI is also a promising tool for improving the diagnosis of difficult forms of focal-onset epilepsy. This talk will provide an overview of this active field of research, focusing on two of the most common forms of focal-onset epilepsy, namely temporal lobe epilepsy and focal cortical dysplasias.