ArticleNeurosurgery2020
Deep Brain Stimulation in Epilepsy: A Role for Modulation of the Mammillothalamic Tract in Seizure Control?
Article in Neurosurgery, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 84 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gamma suppression correlates with thalamic stimulation therapeutic response in intractable epilepsy.Epilepsia · 2026Article
- Long-term efficacy of anterior nucleus of the thalamus deep brain stimulation in drug-resistant epilepsy: a 5-year multicenter study.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Thalamocortical hodology to personalize electrical stimulation for focal epilepsy.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Biomarkers for Epilepsy Deep Brain Stimulation.Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society · 2025Review
- Mapping Lesion-Related Human Aggression to a Common Brain Network.Biological psychiatry · 2025Article
- Comparison of structural connectomes for modeling deep brain stimulation pathway activation.NeuroImage · 2025Article
- Seizure Detection and Lateralization Using Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulator Recordings.Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society · 2025Article
- New and Old Targets: Evolving Framework for Personalized DBS in Refractory Epilepsy.Stereotactic and functional neurosurgery · 2025Review
- Decreased Structural Connectivity Between Thalamic Nuclei and Hippocampus in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy-A Diffusion Tensor Imaging-Based Study.European journal of neurology · 2025Article
- High angular resolution diffusion-weighted imaging and higher order tractography of the white matter tracts in the anterior thalamic area: Insights into deep brain stimulation targeting.Neuroimage. Reports · 2024Article
- Neurostimulation treatments for epilepsy: Deep brain stimulation, responsive neurostimulation and vagus nerve stimulation.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2024Review
- Diffusion tensor imaging for detecting biomarkers of idiopathic epilepsy in dogs.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Review
- Epilepsy Networks and Their Surgical Relevance.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Temporo-Parietal Extraventricular Approach for Deep Brain Stimulation Targeting the Anterior Nucleus of the Thalamus: Institutional Experience.Neurosurgery · 2023Article
- Abolition of seizures following Forel-H-tomy for drug-resistant epilepsy: A case report.Epilepsia open · 2023Article
- Mapping Lesion-Related Epilepsy to a Human Brain Network.JAMA neurology · 2023Article
- Review
- In vivo probabilistic atlas of white matter tracts of the human subthalamic area combining track density imaging and optimized diffusion tractography.Brain structure & function · 2022Article
- Towards network-guided neuromodulation for epilepsy.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2022Review
- Practical considerations in epilepsy neurostimulation.Epilepsia · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDeep brain stimulation of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT-DBS) can improve seizure control for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). Yet, one cannot overlook the high discrepancy in efficacy among patients, possibly resulting from differences in stimulation site.
objectiveTo test the hypothesis that stimulation at the junction of the ANT and mammillothalamic tract (ANT-MTT junction) increases seizure control.
methodsThe relationship between seizure control and the location of the active contacts to the ANT-MTT junction was investigated in 20 patients treated with ANT-DBS for DRE. Coordinates and Euclidean distance of the active contacts relative to the ANT-MTT junction were calculated and related to seizure control. Stimulation sites were mapped by modelling the volume of tissue activation (VTA) and generating stimulation heat maps.
resultsAfter 1 yr of stimulation, patients had a median 46% reduction in total seizure frequency, 50% were responders, and 20% of patients were seizure-free. The Euclidean distance of the active contacts to the ANT-MTT junction correlates to change in seizure frequency (r2 = 0.24, P = .01) and is ∼30% smaller (P = .015) in responders than in non-responders. VTA models and stimulation heat maps indicate a hot-spot at the ANT-MTT junction for responders, whereas non-responders had no evident hot-spot.
conclusionStimulation at the ANT-MTT junction correlates to increased seizure control. Our findings suggest a relationship between the stimulation site and therapy response in ANT-DBS for epilepsy with a potential role for the MTT. DBS directed at white matter merits further exploration for the treatment of epilepsy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.