DynaMap

(Dynamical Brain Mapping and Pathophysiology of Focal Human Epilepsies)

The main research themes of the DynaMaP team are i) the methodology of brain mapping for epilepsy and cognition (based on EEG, magnetoencephalography and intracerebral EEG) ii) the pathophysiology of human epilepsy. A key feature of the team is to be composed of people with diverse backgrounds (engineers, clinicians, neuroscientists) and to be located within the Timone hospital, which ensures tight collaboration between research and clinics. In the past years, we notably obtained results on the characterization of epileptic networks and on the simultaneous recording of MEG an intracerebral EEG.

We are part of large-scale projects (RHU Epinov, ERC Galvani). Moreover, the Dynamap team runs the magnetoencephalography platform, which has the IBISA and “AMU platform” labels, is member of France Life Imaging network, and of several AMU Institutes (NeuroMarseille, Laënnec, Marseille Imaging).

A particular effort is made towards translation of our work to clinicians and researchers through the multi-platform Anywave software and its associated plugins (epileptogenicity Index, Delphos, Gardel…), which architecture specifically aims at allowing fast implementation of algorithms to the end users.

We obtained recently an A*midex industrial chair, “NewMeg Marseille”, in collaboration with the Meg4Health company.

DYNAMAP TEAM

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TEAM LEAD

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Christian BÉNAR

DR, INSERM

EMAIL: christian.benar@univ-amu.fr PHONE: +33 4 91 38 55 77

I graduated from Ecole Supérieur d’Electricité (Supélec) in 1994. I then spent one year as an engineer at the Hospital Saint-Anne in Toulon (with Franck Vidal), and two years as a programmer at Stellate Systems (Montréal, Dir Jean Gotman). I did my PhD under the supervision of Jean Gotman at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI). Back to France in 2004, my postdocs were in Marseille (fMRI Center, with Jean-Luc Anton) and in Sophia Antipolis (Maureen Clerc and Theodore Papadopoulo).

I was appointed researcher Inserm (CR1) in 2006, and Inserm Director of Research (DR2) in 2018 . Since January 2012, I am the leader of the “Dynamical Brain Mapping Group” here at INS. Since September 2014, I am scientific head of the Marseille MEG platform. Since 2023, I am a member of the scientific council of the Fédération Française de Recherche sur l’épilepsie (FFRE) and elected member of the Neurotechnology Task force of international League against Epilepsy (ILAE).

My research interest is signal processing applied to brain signals (EEG, MEG, intracerebral EEG), in order to characterize the spatio-temporal dynamics of networks in cognition and disease.

TEAM MEMBERS

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Fabrice BARTOLOMEI | PU-PH (HDR)

Jean Michel BADIER | IR AMU

Francesca Bonini | MCU-PH

Jeanne BENOIT | MD, PhD Student

Eya BOURGUIBA | Project Manager

Flavius BRATU | MD, PhD Student

Zakia Chidhouri | Engineer

Bruno COLOMBET | AI AMU

Beatrice DESNOUS | MD, PhD

Maria Fratello | PhD Student

Raphaël GUEX | Postdoc

Khoubeib KANZARI | Engineer

Stanislas LAGARDE | MCU-PH, MD PhD

Isabelle LAMBERT | MD, PhD

Victor LOPEZ-MADRONA | Postdoc

Samuel MEDINA | Engineer

Francesca PIZZO | MD, PhD

Didier SCAVARDA | PU-PH (HDR)

Julia SCHOLLY | MD, PhD

Capucine RODET | PhD Student

Lou SEROPIAN | Postdoc

Lucas ARRIGHI | PhD Student

Lydia STOUTAH | PhD Student

Petra CIPOLLA | Engineer

Camille MAZZARA | Postdoc

DYNAMAP PUBLICATIONS

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Selected Publications

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Jedynak, M., et al. (2023) " Variability of Single Pulse Electrical Stimulation Responses Recorded with Intracranial Electroencephalography in Epileptic Patients" Brain Topography

López‐Madrona, Víctor J., et al. " Magnetoencephalography can reveal deep brain network activities linked to memory processes." Human Brain Mapping 43.15 (2022): 4733-4749.

Simula, S., Daoud, M., Bénar, C. G., Benquet, P., Ruffini, G., Wendling, F., & Bartolomei, F. (2022). Transcranial current stimulation in epilepsy: A systematic review of the fundamental and clinical aspects. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 1289.

Bénar, C. G., Velmurugan, J., López-Madrona, V. J., Pizzo, F., & Badier, J. M. (2021). Detection and localization of deep sources in magnetoencephalography: A review. Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering, 18, 100285.

Pizzo F, Roehri N, Medina Villalon S, Trébuchon A, Chen S, Lagarde S, Carron R, Gavaret M, Giusiano B, McGonigal A, Bartolomei F, Badier JM, Bénar CG. Deep brain activities can be detected with magnetoencephalography. Nat Commun. 2019 Feb 27;10(1):971.

Lagarde S, Roehri N, Lambert I, Trebuchon A, McGonigal A, Carron R, Scavarda D, Milh M, Pizzo F, Colombet B, Giusiano B, Medina Villalon S, Guye M, Bénar CG, Bartolomei F. Interictal stereotactic-EEG functional connectivity in refractory focal epilepsies. Brain. 2018 Oct 1;141(10):2966-2980.

Roehri N, Pizzo F, Lagarde S, Lambert I, Nica A, McGonigal A, Giusiano B, Bartolomei F, Bénar CG. High-frequency oscillations are not better biomarkers of epileptogenic tissues than spikes. Ann Neurol. 2018 Jan;83(1):84-97.

Medina Villalon S, Paz R, Roehri N, Lagarde S, Pizzo F, Colombet B, Bartolomei F, Carron R, Bénar CG. EpiTools, A software suite for presurgical brain mapping in epilepsy: Intracerebral EEG. J Neurosci Methods. 2018 Jun 1;303:7-15.

Bartolomei F, Lagarde S, Wendling F, McGonigal A, Jirsa V, Guye M, Bénar C. Defining epileptogenic networks: Contribution of SEEG and signal analysis. Epilepsia. 2017 Jul;58(7):1131-1147.

DYNAMAP RESEARCH

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Simultaneous recordings of MEG, EEG and SEEG

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Most previous work on the comparison of MEG, EEG and intracerebral EEG was performed on separate recordings. However, this is far from being optimal. Indeed, only simultaneous recordings of surface and depth activity permit to investigate the exact same activity, independently of spontaneous fluctuations that can occur from a session to another (depending on subject state, medication etc). Moreover, simultaneous recordings allow using interevent fluctuations as a source of information on the link between signals, as was done on simultaneous EEG-fMRI.

We have shown for the first time the feasibility of trimodal simultaneous recordings: EEG, MEG and SEEG (Dubarry et al., 2014). Technical developments have been proposed in (Badier et al., 2017) and an application to presurgical mapping in (Gavaret et al., 2016). Recently, thanks to the simultaneous intracerebral recordings, we have shown that it is possible to capture the activity of deep structures on MEG (Pizzo et al 2019, López-Madrona et al. 2022).

Badier JM, Dubarry AS, Gavaret M, Chen S, Trebuchon AS, Marquis P, Regis J, Bartolomei F, Benar CG & Carron R (2017) “Technical solutions for simultaneous MEG and SEEG recordings: towards routine clinical use.” Physiol Meas 38(10): N118-N127.

Gavaret M, Dubarry AS, Carron R, Bartolomei F, Benar CG & Trébuchon A (2016) “Simultaneous SEEG-MEG-EEG recordings overcome the SEEG limited spatial sampling.” Epilepsy Res 128: 67:72.

Pizzo F, Roehri N, Medina Villalon S, Trébuchon A, Chen S, Lagarde S, Carron R, Gavaret M, Giusiano B, McGonigal A, Bartolomei F, Badier JM, Bénar CG. Deep brain activities can be detected with magnetoencephalography. Nat Commun. 2019 Feb 27;10(1):971.

Brain networks in epilepsy and sleep

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An active line of research of the team, in collaborations between clinicians and researchers.