Intraoperative epileptogenic network visualization using gamma oscillation regularity correlation analysis in epilepsy surgery

BACKGROUND: We have recently demonstrated that gamma oscillation (30–70 Hz) regularity (GOR) analysis accurately localized epileptogenic focus using intraoperative electrocorticographic data. In this report, we assessed whether GOR correlation analysis could depict epileptogenic networks intraoperatively. Dual foci in temporal lobe epilepsy without hippocampal structural abnormalities are difficult to diagnose. Using our GOR correlation analysis, we aimed to intraoperatively visualize such dual foci and epileptogenic networks. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 56-year-old man suffered from pharmacoresistant focal impaired awareness seizures. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated an 8 × 12-mm cavernoma in the right inferior temporal gyrus without any structural changes in the hippocampus. Since ictal semiology indicated a high probability of epileptogenicity in the right hippocampus, we reached the hippocampus using a transsylvian approach and assessed intraoperative GOR correlation analysis in the lateral temporal lobe where the cavernoma was located and the hippocampus, simultaneously. High GORs suggestive of epileptogenicity were identified in both the lateral temporal lobe and the hippocampus. Furthermore, they were connected using GOR correlation networks. When the high GOR locations in the lateral temporal lobe and the cavernoma were removed, high GORs and those networks were found within the hippocampus only. After additional hippocampal transection, high GORs and these networks were absent. The patient became seizure-free after the surgery. CONCLUSION: Our GOR correlation analysis may be a powerful tool for intraoperative evaluation of epileptogenic networks in epilepsy surgery.