Event Date
SHEELA TOPRANI, MD, PHD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, UC Davis Health
Abstract
Morbidity in epilepsy is compounded by distressing symptoms, such as depression or memory loss, which compromise quality of life (QOL). Epilepsy, including neuropsychological symptoms, is a network phenomenon deserving network-focused treatment. The most effective treatment, surgical resection, comes at a cost of removing parts of the brain that are important for physiological function.
Of the current invasive treatment options, electrical neuromodulation best preserves cognitive function. This talk will cover considerations for neuromodulation paradigm design, including target and parameter selection as well as open versus closed loop models for seizure reduction. It will introduce how learning about the underlying seizure network can guide neuromodulation design. It will talk about the mechanisms by which electrical stimulation paradigms affect seizure networks. It will then explore considerations for electrically modulating physiological networks with similar paradigms, such as networks involved in memory or sleep, to introduce the potential of neuromodulation for concurrent seizure reduction with neuropsychological symptom improvement.
Bio
Dr. Toprani joined the Department of Neurology at UC Davis, in the Division of Epilepsy, in July 2021. Her research bridges the fields of epilepsy, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroengineering and she is collaborating with incredible UC Davis researchers in departments of biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and neurosurgery. Her research explores how seizures develop, and how physiological networks overlap with seizure networks, to develop neuromodulation treatments for patients with refractory epilepsy that optimize neuropsychological function in addition to treating seizures.
Dr. Toprani’s training includes philosophy, neuroscience, biopsychology, biophysics, and biomedical engineering, with a focus on elucidating brain networks for developing minimally invasive neuromodulation therapies since 2006. She obtained a PhD at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), under the mentorship of Dr. Dominique Durand, Chair of the Neural Engineering Center, where she studied seizure spread pathways across fiber tracts connecting bilateral hippocampi, developed mechanism and network-guided deep brain stimulation paradigms for bilateral seizure reduction, and studied how it works. During her Neurology Residency at Johns Hopkins and Epilepsy Fellowship at Stanford, she studied network connectivity of seizures by analyzing cortico-cortical evoked responses (CCEPs) obtained from intracranially implanted electrodes in patients with refractory epilepsy, with the guidance of experts in the field, Dr. Crone, Dr. Parvizi, and Dr. Fisher. She studied the interaction of consciousness with epilepsy with Dr. Meador, an expert in assessing psychosocial, behavioral, and cognitive signs clinically and as a PI of an international clinical trial.
The patients that Dr. Toprani sees in clinic have refractory epilepsy, so she has unique insights into the needs of this population, which motivate her goal of holistic care that considers patients’ cognitive and psychosocial function throughout their experience, from detailed mapping of important brain functions with quantifiable cognitive exams at all stages to therapies that support best cognitive outcomes.
This event has both in-person and remote options. Please register at this link:
https://tinyurl.com/NeuroengOct21