Optimal treatment of epilepsy requires timely initiation of therapy, monitoring of therapy response, and, eventually, anti-seizure drug tapering once lasting seizure freedom has been achieved. For personalized medicine, identifying periods with high or low seizure propensity is crucial for therapy adjustments over time, thereby improving quality of life. This demand for therapy monitoring has kindled interest in wearable or implantable wireless electronic devices. From the technology viewpoint, “neuromorphic engineering” is a promising approach. From the signal processing viewpoint, diagnostic biomarkers deriving from EEG signals are the most reliable for therapy monitoring. In particular, high frequency oscillations (HFO) have been established as promising biomarkers in the long-term intracranial EEG (iEEG), in the intraoperative electrocorticogram (ECoG), and in the scalp EEG. HFO can monitor disease severity, measure seizure propensity, and evaluate therapy response, thus improving prognostication and therapy  management.

In our current research, we aim to develop an electronic device that can reliably detect HFO in real time.  For the neurosurgeon, the rapid and reliable HFO measurement during surgery will then provide an additional diagnostic method. Our ultimate goal is to construct a long-term epilepsy monitoring device in the out-of-hospital setting for extended wireless recordings from a large number of electrode contacts over several weeks or months. Given the emerging knowledge about the cyclical occurrence of high or low seizure propensity periods, the proposed device benefits from and contributes to this current breakthrough of epilepsy therapy.