Comparison of source localization of interictal epileptic spike potentials in patients estimated by the dipole tracing method with the focus directly recorded by the depth electrodes.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the accuracy of location of equivalent current dipoles estimated by the dipole tracing method (DT) utilizing a realistic 3-shell (scalp-skull-brain) head model (SSB-DT). Three patients with intractable complex partial seizures, diagnosed as having typical temporal seizures were investigated. We recorded the interictal spike potentials with surface electrodes (International 10/20 system) and with intracerebral depth electrodes simultaneously. We compared the location of dipoles of the spikes estimated by the SSB-DT with the focus of the spikes determined by the recording from the depth electrodes. We found that the location of the dipoles estimated by SSB-DT corresponded to the location of the depth electrodes, which could record the epileptic spikes. This finding proved that SSB-DT is reliable and valid for estimating neural activity in deep locations such as the limbic system.