The TIME study: The Impact on Memory of Epilepsy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The TIME study: The Impact on Memory of Epilepsy
IRAS ID
229579
Contact name
Denize Atan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Epilepsy is characterized by sudden surges in the electrical activity of the brain, leading to seizures. If a source of seizures can be identified using MRI scans (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and EEGs (electroencephalograms), then surgery to remove the source is likely to improve seizure control.
Patients referred for epilepsy surgery in Bristol perform several neuropsychology tests to find out how well different parts of the brain are working, including memory tests. These tests help clinicians predict whether patients who have surgery will have better or worse cognitive functions afterwards, and allow them to help patients and their families make an informed choice about the risks and benefits of surgery.
We are particularly interested to know how well memories are processed in epilepsy patients. This is because seizures cause nerve cells to die in the hippocampus- an important brain structure for memory. We would like to see how well children and adults with epilepsy perform an additional memory task during fMRI scans and EEGs to see how changes in their activity patterns correlate with how well they do the task and the results of their standard tests. For those who have epilepsy surgery involving the hippocampus, we would like to see how well they do our memory task during post-operative MRI scans to compare the differences before and after surgery. We would also like to correlate our results with the degree of cell loss we find in the hippocampus from their post-operative histology.
The ultimate aim of this project is to find out how epilepsy and epilepsy surgery involving the hippocampus affects memory. Our secondary aims are to find out how the changes we detect on the MRI scans, EEGs and histology from epilepsy patients correlate with their memory abilities, and how our task compares with standard memory tests.REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SW/0256
Date of REC Opinion
28 Nov 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion