Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans | PLOS Biology journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans
Hemispherotomy is a neurosurgical procedure for treating refractory epilepsy by disconnecting a significant portion of the cortex. This study shows that the isolated cortex exhibits EEG patterns resem...
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October 21, 2025 at 10:11 PM
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1/ "Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans" - out now in @plosbiology.org, led by Michele Colombo, Jacopo Favaro, & Marcello Massimini. 🧠
October 17, 2025 at 7:57 AM
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#Hemispherotomy is a surgical treatment for #epilepsy by disconnecting a portion of the #cortex. Michele Colombo, Jacopo Favaro, @anilseth.bsky.social, Marcello Massimini &co show that the isolated cortex has #EEG patterns resembling deep #sleep or #anesthesia @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3J9ci8X
October 17, 2025 at 4:33 PM
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4/ In this new @plosbiology.org study, led by Marcello, Jacopo, and Michele – we compared EEG pre/post hemispherotomy in 10 pediatric patients and found dynamics consistent with absent (or highly reduced) awareness in the isolated cortex
October 17, 2025 at 7:57 AM
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6/ Finally, I have vivid memories of watching an 8 hour hemispherotomy operation back in 2019, carried out by my friend Michael Carter. One of the most humbling and awe-inspiring experiences of my life. I wrote about it in #BeingYou.
October 17, 2025 at 7:57 AM
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#Hemispherotomy is a surgical treatment for #epilepsy by disconnecting a portion of the #cortex. @anilseth.bsky.social &co show that the isolated cortex has #EEG patterns resembling deep #sleep or #anesthesia, with slow oscillations & reduced spectral exponent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3J9ci8X
October 17, 2025 at 10:04 AM
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Colombo et al., Plos Biology, "Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans"
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans
Hemispherotomy is a neurosurgical procedure for treating refractory epilepsy by disconnecting a significant portion of the cortex. This study shows that the isolated cortex exhibits EEG patterns resem...
journals.plos.org
October 16, 2025 at 6:13 PM
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My grandson (SSI and Medicare) was born with a rare brain deformity and needed hemispherotomy at 4 months. These programs pay for his multiple therapies and when it has been too difficult for him to get out of the house, telehealth has been necessary.
November 16, 2024 at 2:31 PM
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Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans @PLOSBiology.org
Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans
by Michele Angelo Colombo, Jacopo Favaro, Ezequiel Mikulan, Andrea Pigorini, Flavia Maria Zauli, Ivana Sartori, Piergiorgio d’Orio, Laura Castana, Irene Toldo, Stefano Sartori, Simone Sarasso, Tim Bayne, Anil K. Seth, Marcello Massimini
Hemispherotomy is a neurosurgical procedure for treating refractory epilepsy, which entails disconnecting a significant portion of the cortex, potentially encompassing an entire hemisphere, from its cortical and subcortical connections. While this intervention prevents the spread of seizures, it raises important questions. Given the complete isolation from sensory-motor pathways, it remains unclear whether the disconnected cortex retains any form of inaccessible awareness. More broadly, the activity patterns that large portions of the deafferented cortex can sustain in awake humans remain poorly understood. We address these questions by exploring for the first time the electroencephalographic (EEG) state of the isolated cortex during wakefulness before and after surgery in 10 pediatric patients, focusing on non-epileptic background activity. Post-surgery, the isolated cortex exhibited prominent slow oscillations (
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November 1, 2025 at 12:49 AM
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Open Access UCL Research: Determinants of Functional Outcome after Pediatric Hemispherotomy discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...
Determinants of Functional Outcome after Pediatric Hemispherotomy
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UCL Discovery
UCL Discovery is UCL's open access repository, showcasing and providing access to UCL research outputs from all UCL disciplines.
discovery.ucl.ac.uk
December 13, 2024 at 10:39 AM
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Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans @PLOSBiology.org
Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans
by Michele Angelo Colombo, Jacopo Favaro, Ezequiel Mikulan, Andrea Pigorini, Flavia Maria Zauli, Ivana Sartori, Piergiorgio d’Orio, Laura Castana, Irene Toldo, Stefano Sartori, Simone Sarasso, Tim Bayne, Anil K. Seth, Marcello Massimini
Hemispherotomy is a neurosurgical procedure for treating refractory epilepsy, which entails disconnecting a significant portion of the cortex, potentially encompassing an entire hemisphere, from its cortical and subcortical connections. While this intervention prevents the spread of seizures, it raises important questions. Given the complete isolation from sensory-motor pathways, it remains unclear whether the disconnected cortex retains any form of inaccessible awareness. More broadly, the activity patterns that large portions of the deafferented cortex can sustain in awake humans remain poorly understood. We address these questions by exploring for the first time the electroencephalographic (EEG) state of the isolated cortex during wakefulness before and after surgery in 10 pediatric patients, focusing on non-epileptic background activity. Post-surgery, the isolated cortex exhibited prominent slow oscillations (
dlvr.it
October 29, 2025 at 6:48 PM
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Groundbreaking surgery offers hope for children with drug-resistant epilepsy in bilateral Sturge-Weber syndrome, a rare condition. Unilateral hemispherotomy, once deemed unsuitable, can n...
🧵 Thread below
Full analysis: https://helixbrief.com/article/d946c2ed-e500-4635-b720-5f4f92a7fde2
🧵 Thread below
Full analysis: https://helixbrief.com/article/d946c2ed-e500-4635-b720-5f4f92a7fde2
October 8, 2025 at 6:06 PM
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Key point: Seizure freedom was achieved in 84% of patients, but 51% had severe intellectual impairments.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
#epilepsy #ILAE #epilepsia #Antiseizuremedication #ASM #Hemispherotomy #MRIabnormalities #Polymicrogyria #Seizurefreedom
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
#epilepsy #ILAE #epilepsia #Antiseizuremedication #ASM #Hemispherotomy #MRIabnormalities #Polymicrogyria #Seizurefreedom
April 24, 2025 at 6:23 PM
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Hemispherotomy: a cortical island of sleep-like activity in awake humans 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
"Post-surgery, the isolated cortex exhibited prominent slow oscillations (<2 Hz), and a shift from high to low frequencies" 🤯
+ also totally consistent with our own 🐭 chemogenetic work!
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www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
"Post-surgery, the isolated cortex exhibited prominent slow oscillations (<2 Hz), and a shift from high to low frequencies" 🤯
+ also totally consistent with our own 🐭 chemogenetic work!
1/2
February 13, 2025 at 10:57 AM
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This case series explores the use of unilateral hemispherotomy, a surgical procedure, to treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children with bilateral Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS).
October 8, 2025 at 6:06 PM
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After a multidisciplinary evaluation, the children underwent successful unilateral hemispherotomy, achieving prolonged seizure freedom, better quality of life, and improved developmental progress.
October 8, 2025 at 6:06 PM
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Hemispherotomy: a cortical island of sleep-like activity in awake humans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.10.637383v1
February 12, 2025 at 5:15 PM
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Interesting: following hemispherotomy – this is typically performed for severe intractable epilepsies, where one hemisphere is fully disconnected but left in place – there remains "islands of awareness" although most activity is sleep-like.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
February 13, 2025 at 7:41 AM
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#Hemispherotomy is a surgical treatment for #epilepsy by disconnecting a portion of the #cortex. Michele Colombo, Jacopo Favaro, @anilseth.bsky.social, Marcello Massimini &co show that the isolated cortex has #EEG patterns resembling deep #sleep or #anesthesia @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3J9ci8X
October 17, 2025 at 12:58 PM
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Excited to share our work at #AES2024! Dr. Nair, one of our stellar child neurology residents, is presenting findings on post-hemispherotomy outcomes in Rasmussen’s encephalitis patients, in collaboration with the Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Alliance. ! #PedsNeurology #EpilepsyResearch”
December 7, 2024 at 11:12 PM
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3/ Hemispherotomy is a dramatic surgical intervention that involves full neural isolation of damaged cortex, but preservation of blood supply etc – the isolated cortex remains ‘alive’ but fully disconnected. Could it be an island of awareness – totally inaccessible from the outside?
October 17, 2025 at 7:57 AM
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Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans @PLOSBiology.org
Hemispherotomy leads to persistent sleep-like slow waves in the isolated cortex of awake humans
by Michele Angelo Colombo, Jacopo Favaro, Ezequiel Mikulan, Andrea Pigorini, Flavia Maria Zauli, Ivana Sartori, Piergiorgio d’Orio, Laura Castana, Irene Toldo, Stefano Sartori, Simone Sarasso, Tim Bayne, Anil K. Seth, Marcello Massimini
Hemispherotomy is a neurosurgical procedure for treating refractory epilepsy, which entails disconnecting a significant portion of the cortex, potentially encompassing an entire hemisphere, from its cortical and subcortical connections. While this intervention prevents the spread of seizures, it raises important questions. Given the complete isolation from sensory-motor pathways, it remains unclear whether the disconnected cortex retains any form of inaccessible awareness. More broadly, the activity patterns that large portions of the deafferented cortex can sustain in awake humans remain poorly understood. We address these questions by exploring for the first time the electroencephalographic (EEG) state of the isolated cortex during wakefulness before and after surgery in 10 pediatric patients, focusing on non-epileptic background activity. Post-surgery, the isolated cortex exhibited prominent slow oscillations (
dlvr.it
October 28, 2025 at 10:47 AM
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被切断大脑区域的脑电图与深度睡眠脑电图相似
根据发表在 PLoS Biology 期刊上的一项研究，被切断大脑区域的脑电图与深度睡眠脑电图相似。这一研究发现加深了对意识和无意识脑状态的理解。对于药物无效的严重癫痫患儿，医生会通过名为脑半球切除术（hemispherotomy）的手术切断引发癫痫的脑半球与大脑其余部分的连接，以阻止癫痫扩散。被切断的脑组织会被留在颅骨内，保留了完整的血液供应。被切断的脑区域是否具有某种形式的意识，或者是否能表现出意识？研究人员分析了十名儿童在手术前以及手术后六个月至三年期间的脑电图。他们发现，被切断脑区域的电活动在术后减缓，而其余大脑部分的电活动没有变化，其脑电
根据发表在 PLoS Biology 期刊上的一项研究，被切断大脑区域的脑电图与深度睡眠脑电图相似。这一研究发现加深了对意识和无意识脑状态的理解。对于药物无效的严重癫痫患儿，医生会通过名为脑半球切除术（hemispherotomy）的手术切断引发癫痫的脑半球与大脑其余部分的连接，以阻止癫痫扩散。被切断的脑组织会被留在颅骨内，保留了完整的血液供应。被切断的脑区域是否具有某种形式的意识，或者是否能表现出意识？研究人员分析了十名儿童在手术前以及手术后六个月至三年期间的脑电图。他们发现，被切断脑区域的电活动在术后减缓，而其余大脑部分的电活动没有变化，其脑电
October 21, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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This study suggests that functional hemispherotomy may be a safe and effective treatment option for patients with bilateral drug-resistant SWS, challenging the traditional view that resective surgery is not suitable for this condition.
October 8, 2025 at 6:06 PM
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Hemispherotomy: a cortical island of sleep-like activity in awake humans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.10.637383v1
February 12, 2025 at 5:15 PM
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