Researchers also are trying to better understand epileptogenesis and how to reduce procedural side effects, including how to predict effects on cognitive function. To get there, "we need to understand more about how human cognition works," Dr. Chang said. Brain-mapping studies are showing that most aspects of cognition are not centered in one specific, focused area.
"Just like we’re thinking now that seizures are part of a distributed network, we also need to understand comorbidities and morbidity from surgical approaches in the same kind of framework," he said.
Until surgery is better used and studied, it is unlikely that neurology can move forward to truly understand the safety and effectiveness of the minimally invasive approaches, Dr. Chang said.
Dr. Chang has received grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund.
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