Charting a new course in brain mapping and epilepsy treatment

Another area where scientific and clinical breakthroughs exist side by side is OBI’s Epilepsy Program – designated a Level 4 center by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers, the highest possible ranking.

A disorder of the brain’s electrical activity, epilepsy affects more than 65 million people worldwide. OBI’s combination of expert care, clinical trial research, and sophisticated brain mapping techniques – along with one of the largest inpatient epilepsy monitoring units in the country – puts UTSW at the forefront of solving the mysteries of this debilitating disease. 

Since its launch in 2019, UT Southwestern’s magnetoencephalography (MEG) program has helped pinpoint the source of seizures with unparalleled ultra-high-speed temporal resolution and precision. The state-of-the-art scanner – the only one in Dallas – performs presurgical brain maps and detects the magnetic fields produced by the brain’s electrical activity. The MEG team creates highly detailed 3D brain maps – think Google Maps for the brain – and works closely with neurosurgeons to treat seizures at the source.

UTSW’s MEG Center of Excellence is clinically approved to localize epilepsy disorders, but it has expanded its scope dramatically as a research tool, providing invaluable brain-mapping data for OBI’s physicians and neuroscientists.

“The MEG has boundless research potential for all manner of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injuries, autism, and schizophrenia, just to name a few,” said Elizabeth Davenport, Ph.D., MEG Technical Director and Associate Professor of Radiology. “Essentially, this imaging technique can be used to investigate any question related to the brain.”