Ictal time-irreversible intracranial EEG signals as markers of the epileptogenic zone

Objective: To show that time-irreversible EEG signals recorded with intracranial electrodes during seizures can serve as markers of the epileptogenic zone.

Methods: We use the recently developed method of mapping time series into directed horizontal graphs (dHVG). Each node of the dHVG represents a time point in the original intracranial EEG (iEEG) signal. Statistically significant differences between the distributions of the nodes' number of input and output connections are used to detect time-irreversible iEEG signals.

Results: In 31 of 32 seizure recordings we found time-irreversible iEEG signals. The maximally time-irreversible signals always occurred during seizures, with highest probability in the middle of the first seizure half. These signals spanned a large range of frequencies and amplitudes but were all characterized by saw-tooth like shaped components. Brain regions removed from patients who became post-surgically seizure-free generated significantly larger time-irreversibilities than regions removed from patients who still had seizures after surgery.

Conclusions: Our results corroborate that ictal time-irreversible iEEG signals can indeed serve as markers of the epileptogenic zone and can be efficiently detected and quantified in a time-resolved manner by dHVG based methods.

Significance: Ictal time-irreversible EEG signals can help to improve pre-surgical evaluation in patients suffering from pharmaco-resistant epilepsies.