Living with epilepsy is extraordinarily challenging, primarily due to the unpredictability of seizures, which significantly affect daily activities and quality of life. In Australia, epilepsy affects approximately 250,000 people, with 40% experiencing drug-resistant forms, limiting their treatment options and greatly impairing their lives. An innovative approach is required to provide hope where traditional methods, such as brain surgery, often fall short with a high failure rate.

The speaker draws an analogy between seizure events in the brain and unpredictable weather patterns, suggesting a novel method for seizure localization. By using techniques similar to mapping weather systems, the speaker proposes tracking the electromagnetic storms generated by nerve cells throughout the brain using non-invasive technology. This method allows for the development of seizure maps, offering a precise way to guide brain surgery with more confidence and less invasiveness.

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. debilitated [dɪˈbɪləˌteɪtɪd] - (adjective) - In a weakened state, often due to illness or injury. - Synonyms: (weakened, incapacitated, enfeebled)

Been so debilitated by your health condition that you can't even hold down a steady job.

2. chronic [ˈkrɒnɪk] - (adjective) - Persisting for a long time or constantly recurring. - Synonyms: (persistent, long-term, prolonged)

Epilepsy in fact is the most common chronic, life threatening neurological condition in Australia.

3. neurological [ˌnʊroʊˈlɒdʒɪkəl] - (adjective) - Relating to the anatomy, functions, and organic disorders of nerves and the nervous system. - Synonyms: (neural, nerve-related, neuropathic)

Epilepsy in fact is the most common chronic, life threatening neurological condition in Australia.

4. invasive [ɪnˈveɪsɪv] - (adjective) - Involving the introduction of instruments or devices into the body. - Synonyms: (intrusive, penetrating, enterprising)

But surgery fails in over 50% of cases simply due to our inability to find the precise location of seizure focus using those invasive electrodes that only samples less than 5% of the brain.

5. electromagnetic [ɪˌlɛktroʊmæɡˈnɛtɪk] - (adjective) - Relating to the interrelation of electric currents or fields and magnetic fields. - Synonyms: (electromotive, electrodynamic, magnetoelectric)

So instead of looking at the wind field globally to track the storms, what if we could track the electromagnetic Storms generated by billions of nerve cells across the whole brain.

6. pinpoint [ˈpɪnpɔɪnt] - (verb) - To find or locate exactly. - Synonyms: (locate, identify, determine)

And the surgery requires pushing the skew like electrodes through the skull into the brain to record seizures so that clinicians can pinpoint and remove the brain areas that trigger seizures

7. superconducting [ˌsuːpərkənˈdʌktɪŋ] - (adjective) - Exhibiting no electrical resistance. - Synonyms: (zero-resistance, non-resistive, ultra-conductive)

And what if we could use the superconducting sensors that are slightly far from our head, just like the satellites in space?

8. non-invasively [nɑn-ɪnˈveɪsɪvli] - (adverb) - Without the need to enter the body surgically. - Synonyms: (non-surgical, external, non-penetrative)

Accurately pinpoint the shader focus completely non invasively without requiring any invasive electrodes inside the brain.

9. unprecedented [ʌnˈprɛsɪˌdɛntɪd] - (adjective) - Never done or known before. - Synonyms: (unparalleled, unmatched, unique)

We hope this is an unprecedented opportunity to bring our groundbreaking research to the next level...

10. groundbreaking [ˈɡraʊndbreɪkɪŋ] - (adjective) - Innovative; pioneering. - Synonyms: (revolutionary, innovative, pioneering)

We hope this is an unprecedented opportunity to bring our groundbreaking research to the next level...

Towards Curing Epilepsy by Tracking the Eye of the Storm - Miao Cao - TEDxSwinburne University

Have you ever imagined what it means to live with epilepsy? How does it change people's daily life? Being so worried about having a seizure that you simply cannot drive your kids to sports practice? Being so afraid of having a seizure that you couldn't even hold your baby. Been so debilitated by your health condition that you can't even hold down a steady job.

Living with epilepsy is hard and it's hard simply because of the uncertainty of seizures. Epilepsy in fact is the most common chronic, life threatening neurological condition in Australia. It affects about 250,000 Australians and 40% of them will suffer seizures for their whole lifetime. This proportion, 40% representing up to 100,000 Australians, has a condition called drug resistant epilepsy. It means that their seizures do not respond adequately to any anti seizure tablets. It also means that the quality and duration of patients life are significantly reduced. Their lives are imprisoned by sages. Here, please remember, 100,000 is not just a figure, it's 100,000 Australian families.

The escape route is brain surgery. And the surgery requires pushing the skew like electrodes through the skull into the brain to record seizures so that clinicians can pinpoint and remove the brain areas that trigger seizures. But always. But surgery fails in over 50% of cases simply due to our inability to find the precise location of seizure focus using those invasive electrodes that only samples less than 5% of the brain. So finding that shadow focus for our patients is very challenging.

I still have the memory of an 80 year old boy who also got drug resistant epilepsy. This condition has literally turned his world upside down. When we were about to perform a patient study to help him out with his seizures, he said good luck with that. I was so devastated, devastated to hear an 8 year old boy with almost no hope.

Now with decades of research, we understand every epilepsy patient is unique and every seizure event is also unique. So with such complexity, reliability and messiness, how can we help our patients? How can we get our patients lives back? So as a scientist I thought what are other systems that also behave like seizures with such uncertainty and unpredictability, what about weather? How about Melbourne weather? Nothing more unpredictable like Melbourne weather, right?

So here it's a windfield map of a storm that brings strong wind across Australia. So I was wondering, perhaps a seizure event is just like a storm in the brain and how can we track the height of the storm to find that shadow focus? So instead of looking at the wind field globally to track the storms, what if we could track the electromagnetic Storms generated by billions of nerve cells across the whole brain using the electrodes on the surface of our head, just like the weather stations on the ground.

And what if we could use the superconducting sensors that are slightly far from our head, just like the satellites in space? What if we could combine those two technologies and improve our accuracy of drawing weather maps for seizure events. Or should I say seizure maps. What if we could use the seizure maps to more precisely guide the plan's footprint brain surgery and allow surgeons to give patients greater confidence in the procedure?

That's what we have done. We borrowed the techniques weather maps and extended them to image the electromagnetic storms. And here on the right, by tracking the beautiful streamlines, we are able to map where sailors start and how sailors spread across the brain. And we can see here the eye of shadow storm emerges right from the start of the shader and the location of the storm eye. Accurately pinpoint the shader focus completely non invasively without requiring any invasive electrodes inside the brain.

Now we are working towards how this technology could guide invasive implantation and surgical planning with more confidence, so that perhaps one day we are less dependent on invasive techniques and we can remove less brain tissue without affecting any normal brain functions with better surgical outcomes.

We hope this is an unprecedented opportunity to bring our groundbreaking research to the next level to more safely inform epilepsy treatment and to change lives of more people living with debilitating epilepsy by tracking the eye of the storm. Together, we can create a future where individuals with epilepsy can live sedar free lives with confidence and dignity.

EPILEPSY, INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, HEALTH, NEUROLOGY, TEDX TALKS