Pathological Electrical Brain Activity In Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury and its major, commonly resulting condition, posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE), are associated with significant functional disability. Currently, there is no way to predict who will develop PTE after brain injury, and no effective treatments to prevent it. Dr. Staba’s research uses direct brain recordings to characterize very fast electrical events called pathologic high frequency oscillations (pHFOs) that are believed to be responsible for the generation of epilepsy in the brain. His research will attempt to confirm that pHFOs underlie PTE. The long-term goal is to utilize pHFOs as a biomarker to screen new disease-modifying drugs in order to prevent PTE.