Wim Van Drongelen, PhD

Research Interests- Understanding mechanisms underlying Epilepsy



Epilepsy is a serious neurological disorder characterized by seizures. About 1% of the world population is affected by this disease and a fraction of 1/3 of patients does not respond to medication. In order to help us understand the pathological behavior we observe during the brain’s epileptiform activity, our group applies a variety of engineering techniques including advanced statistical and digital signal processing, non-linear dynamics, and modeling (link to basic texts) (link to second edition text). The ultimate goal of the research in our lab is to address this enormous problem by improved understanding of the mechanisms that govern different types of epilepsy.



See the lab website for further details, teaching, and videos on lectures



Our research approach is interdisciplinary, including:

Mathematical modeling

Computational modeling

Animal models

Study of tissue from patients with epilepsy

Analysis of clinical recordings

Aberrant fast spiking interneuronal activity precedes seizure transitions in humans.
Aberrant fast spiking interneuronal activity precedes seizure transitions in humans. medRxiv. 2024 Jan 26.
PMID: 38343792

A Novel Quantitative Metric Based on a Complete and Unique Characterization of Neural Network Activity: 4D Shannon's Entropy.
A Novel Quantitative Metric Based on a Complete and Unique Characterization of Neural Network Activity: 4D Shannon's Entropy. bioRxiv. 2023 Sep 15.
PMID: 37745513

Emerging Activity Patterns and Synaptogenesis in Dissociated Hippocampal Cultures.
Emerging Activity Patterns and Synaptogenesis in Dissociated Hippocampal Cultures. bioRxiv. 2023 May 18.
PMID: 37292953

Spatiotemporal spike-centered averaging reveals symmetry of temporal and spatial components of the spike-LFP relationship during human focal seizures.
Spatiotemporal spike-centered averaging reveals symmetry of temporal and spatial components of the spike-LFP relationship during human focal seizures. Commun Biol. 2023 03 25; 6(1):317.
PMID: 36966217

Third-order motifs are sufficient to fully and uniquely characterize spatiotemporal neural network activity.
Third-order motifs are sufficient to fully and uniquely characterize spatiotemporal neural network activity. Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 05; 13(1):238.
PMID: 36604489

Digital reconstruction of infraslow activity in human intracranial ictal recordings using a deconvolution-based inverse filter.
Digital reconstruction of infraslow activity in human intracranial ictal recordings using a deconvolution-based inverse filter. Sci Rep. 2022 08 11; 12(1):13701.
PMID: 35953580

Manifestation of Hippocampal Interictal Discharges on Clinical Scalp EEG Recordings.
Manifestation of Hippocampal Interictal Discharges on Clinical Scalp EEG Recordings. J Clin Neurophysiol. 2023 Feb 01; 40(2):144-150.
PMID: 34010227

Role of paroxysmal depolarization in focal seizure activity.
Role of paroxysmal depolarization in focal seizure activity. J Neurophysiol. 2019 11 01; 122(5):1861-1873.
PMID: 31461373

DC shifts, high frequency oscillations, ripples and fast ripples in relation to the seizure onset zone.
DC shifts, high frequency oscillations, ripples and fast ripples in relation to the seizure onset zone. Seizure. 2020 Apr; 77:52-58.
PMID: 31101405

Reply to "which small sharp spikes are benign epileptiform transients of sleep?"
Reply to "which small sharp spikes are benign epileptiform transients of sleep?" Clin Neurophysiol. 2018 11; 129(11):2495-2496.
PMID: 30268708

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