Abteilung Prächirurgische Epilepsiediagnostik – EpilepsiezentrumKlinik für Neurochirurgie

The Freiburg Epilepsy Center is interested in a wide range of research topics, adressing diagnostic procedures, new therapies, basic physiology and cognition. The center is member of the European Research Network (ERN Epicare) and of the Bernstein Center Freiburg (BCF). There is a multidisciplinare research team, comprising medical doctors, psychologists, neurobiologists, physicists and engineers applying a wide range of methodologies for modeling and data analysis. Research is performed in several national and international collaborations, including partners in Informatics and Engineering in Freiburg, and research institutes in the USA, UK, France, Italy and Denmark.

Research is supported by several funding agencies, including National Institute of Health (NIH), European Union (EU) including the Human Brain Project (HBP), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), as well as foundations (Volkswagen-Stiftung, Epilepsy Foundation). The epilepsy center has been publishing successfully for many years, with publications in journals including Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Neurology, Current Biology, Annals of Neurology and in journals focusing on epilepsy research, with an impact factor of >100 in 2017 and 2018. There is an international research team presently with scientists from Costa Rica, Iran, Georgia, Spain, Russia and Japan with visiting guests from several countries, including USA and Mexico. Researchers are offered participation in PhD programs in Medicine, Computational Neuroscience and Engineering.

Individual Research projects

• Mobile Devices for seizure detection and prediction
• Spatial Memory Lab
• Connectivity of the human cortex 
• Source imaging of epileptic activity
• Biomarkers of epileptogenicity 
• Closed-loop interventions in focal epilepsy 
• Treatment approaches for epilepsy due to hypothalamic hamartomas
• Effects of hippocampus sparing resections in the temporal lobe on hippocampal volume and memory performance
• Cognitive outcome after resective epilepsy surgery in children with focal cortical dysplasia
• Social cognition in focal epilepsy
• Epileptic network characterization based on resting state interictal high-density EEG
• Cannabinoids in the treament of epilepsy