Epilepsy, some of the widespread neurological problems characterised by recurrent seizures, impacts over 70 million folks worldwide. In america, about 3.4 million folks stay with this difficult situation. Round one-third of the epilepsy instances can’t be managed by medicines. For these sufferers, surgical resection of the epileptogenic zone (EZ), an space whose removing can result in seizure freedom—a time period when an individual with epilepsy experiences no seizures—could be an efficient possibility to scale back or eradicate seizures.
Nonetheless, the present success fee for resective surgical procedure—through which the surgeon removes a few of the mind tissues the place seizures originate—is round 50% to 60%. One of many causes is that the EZs weren’t precisely recognized.
To determine the EZs, sufferers bear a sequence of checks, together with MRI, electroencephalography or EEG and intracranial EEG. Epileptologists use these knowledge and pictures to explain the so-called seizure semiology—the signs and behaviors throughout seizures. This info is used to foretell the situation of the EZs.
Nonetheless, the language epileptologists use to explain seizure semiology can differ from one epilepsy heart to a different. “Totally different epilepsy facilities could use totally different phrases describing the identical seizure semiology,” says Feng Liu, Assistant Professor on the Division of Methods and Enterprises, Schaefer College of Engineering and Science at Stevens Institute of Know-how.
“For instance, the phrases ‘uneven posturing’ and ‘uneven tonic exercise’ can be utilized to explain the identical factor,” he shares one instance, referring to a posture the place one arm or one leg is prolonged whereas the opposite is flexed. “There are plenty of phrases that may consult with the identical factor, however totally different facilities could use totally different terminology to explain it.”
That creates a sure inconsistency, presenting challenges to surgeons. Because of the descriptive nature of seizure semiology, massive language fashions or LLMs resembling ChatGPT, which had been skilled on an enormous cohort of public data, could also be a useful software to assist determine the EZs.
Liu and his workforce of collaborators evaluated the scientific worth of utilizing ChatGPT to interpret seizure semiology to foretell the EZ location. “Massive language fashions, resembling ChatGPT, may very well be useful instruments for analyzing complicated textual info, serving to interpret seizure semiology descriptions and help in precisely localizing the epileptogenic zones,” says Liu.
For the research, the workforce surveyed 5 board-certified epileptologists who accomplished an on-line survey comprising 100 questions in regards to the localization of EZs given the outline of seizure semiology. Then, the workforce used ChatGPT to do the identical process and in contrast the efficiency of ChatGPT with that of epileptologists.
It turned out that ChatGPT responses matched or outperformed epileptologists’ responses associated to the areas the place epileptogenic zones are generally situated, such because the mind’s frontal lobe and the temporal lobe.
Nonetheless, epileptologists have supplied extra correct responses in areas the place EZs are hardly ever situated, such because the insula and the cingulate cortex. These findings had been printed in the Journal of Medical Web Analysis.
To additional enhance the efficiency of LLM, the workforce constructed the primary LLM specifically for deciphering seizure semiology, referred to as EpiSemoLLM, which is hosted on a Stevens GPU server. This platform could be a helpful assistant within the decision-making in the course of the presurgical workup part for neurosurgeons and epileptologists.
“Our outcomes reveal that LLM and fine-tuned LLM may function a useful software to help within the preoperative evaluation for epilepsy surgical procedure,” Liu says. “The very best outcomes could be for the people and AI to work collectively.”
Extra info:
Yaxi Luo, et al. Scientific Worth of ChatGPT for Epilepsy Presurgical Resolution-Making: Systematic Analysis of Seizure Semiology Interpretation. Journal of Medical Web Analysis (2025) DOI: 10.2196/69173 On medRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.13.24305773
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ChatGPT helps pinpoint exact places of seizures within the mind, aiding neurosurgeons (2025, Could 12)
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