Anterior Nucleus of Thalamus Deep Brain Stimulation: A Clinical-Based Analysis of the Ideal Target in Drug-Resistant Epilepsy
Bibliographic record
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Deep brain stimulation of the anterior nucleus of thalamus (ANT-DBS) is an approved procedure for drug-resistant epilepsy. However, the preferred location inside ANT is not well known. In this study, we investigated the relationship between stereotactical coordinates of stimulated contacts and clinical improvement, in order to define the ideal target for ANT-DBS. METHODS: Individual contact's coordinates were obtained in the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) 152 space, with the utilization of advanced normalization tools and co-registration of pre- and postoperative MRI and CT images in open-source toolbox lead-DBS with the "Atlas of the Human Thalamus." Each contact's pair was either classified as a responder (≥50% seizure reduction and absence of intolerable adverse effects) or nonresponder, with a minimum follow-up of 11 continuous months of stimulation. RESULTS: A total of 19 contacts' pairs were tested in 14 patients. The responder rate was 9 out of 14 patients (64.3%). In 4 patients, a change in contacts' pairs was needed to achieve this result. A highly encouraging location inside ANT (HELIA) was delimited in MNI space, corresponding to an area in the anterior and inferior portion of the anteroventral (AV) nucleus, medially to the endpoint of the mammillothalamic tract (ANT-mtt junction) (x [3.8; 5.85], y [-2.1; -6.35] and z [6.2; 10.1] in MNI space). Statistically significant difference was observed between responders and nonresponders, in terms of the number of coordinates inside this volume. Seven responders and two nonresponders had at least 5 of 6 coordinates (2 electrodes) inside HELIA (77.8% sensitivity and 80% specificity). In 3 patients, changing to contacts that were better placed inside HELIA changed the status from nonresponder to responder. CONCLUSIONS: A relationship between stimulated contacts' coordinates and responder status was observed in drug-resistant epilepsy. The possibility to target different locations inside HELIA may help surpass anatomical variations and eventually obtain increased clinical benefit.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".