Neal group

Stereo-EEG and Epilepsy Surgery Research

Get in touch | Our people | Our work | Our achievements | Publications

Our group studies patients who have advanced neurosurgery to treat drug-resistant epilepsy, including stereo-electroencephalography (sEEG), radio-frequency thermo-coagulation (RF-THC), laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) and resective surgery.

We are interested in understanding the role of brain networks in the pathophysiology of drug-resistant epilepsy and its associated neurocognitive deficits. We want to improve clinical outcomes of advanced epilepsy neurosurgery and to optimise the patient experience, including tolerability and satisfaction.

Get in touch

Whether you want to be involved in our research, you wish to study with us, you want to collaborate with us or donate to our work, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Email us – andrew.neal@monash.edu

A list of our current projects in SupervisorConnect.

Our work

Our work involves the study of multiple aspects of stereo-electroencephalography (sEEG) including predictors of electrode implantation accuracy, clinical and neuropsychological outcomes, biomarkers of epileptogenic brain networks and radio-frequency thermo-coagulation. We specifically examine patient centred issues to improve outcomes, tolerability and satisfaction.

Our research utilises clinical, radiological and neurophysiological data collected from the SEEG clinical journey in a unique prospective database which fuels many aspects of the research program.

We work alongside the Alfred Health stereo-EEG clinical program, a rapidly growing program which aims to improve SEEG outcomes and optimise the SEEG patient experience.

Our people

Principal Investigators

Meet the team

Our achievements

Grants

NHMRC Investigator Grant Scheme - Emerging Leadership Level 1 (Andrew Neal)
Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation Clinical Investigator Grant 2020 (Andrew Neal)

Awards

Dr Emily Cockle

International Epilepsy Congress 2023 Travel Bursary
Monash University Department of Neuroscience 3MT Winner 2022
CCS GR Student Symposium – best oral presentation 2023

Thanomporn Wittayacharoenpong

Best poster – Epilepsy Society of Australia Annual Meeting 2021
Alfred Research Alliance 2023 – Prize for Clinical Research

Publication Highlights

Below are a selection of some of published studies reflecting our high impact work.

Neuropsychological Outcomes After Stereo-EEG Radiofrequency Thermocoagulation. Neurology, December 2024. Cockle, E., Malpas, C. B., Coleman, H., McIlroy, A., Laing, J., Kwan, P., Hunn, M., Gutman, M., Harb, C., Meade, C., D'Souza, W. J., Halliday, A. J., Bulluss, K., Vogrin, S. J., Alpitsis, R., O'Brien, T. J., Rayner, G., & Neal, A.

Vascular imaging for Stereoelectroencephalography: A safety and planning study. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, September, 2024. Szmidel, M., Hunn, M., Neal, A., Laing, J., Broadley, L., Wittayacharoenpong, T., O'brien, T., & Gutman, M.

Prognostic value of the 5-SENSE Score to predict focality of the seizure-onset zone as assessed by stereoelectroencephalography: a prospective international multicentre validation study. BMJ neurology open, August, 2024. Astner-Rohracher, A., Ho, A., Archer, J., Bartolomei, F., Brazdil, M., Cacic Hribljan, M., Castellano, J., Dolezalova, I., Fabricius, M. E., Garcés-Sanchez, M., Hammam, K., Ikeda, A., Ikeda, K., Kahane, P., Kalamangalam, G., Kalss, G., Khweileh, M., Kobayashi, K., Kwan, P., Laing, J. A., … Neal, A., … Frauscher, B.

Automated segmentation of epilepsy surgical resection cavities: Comparison of four methods to manual segmentation. NeuroImage, August, 2024. Courtney, M. R., Sinclair, B., Neal, A., Nicolo, J. P., Kwan, P., Law, M., O'Brien, T. J., & Vivash, L.

Association of Localizing ¹⁸F-FDG-PET Hypometabolism and Outcome Following Epilepsy Surgery: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Neurology, May 2024. Courtney, M. R., Antonic-Baker, A., Chen, Z., Sinclair, B., Nicolo, J. P., Neal, A., Marotta, C., Bunyamin, J., Law, M., Kwan, P., O'Brien, T. J., & Vivash, L.

Ex-SPECTing success: Predictors of successful SPECT radiotracer injection during presurgical video-EEG admissions. Epilepsia Open, October 2024. Cosentino, C., Al Maawali, S., Wittayacharoenpong, T., Tan, T., Au Yong, H. M., Shakhatreh, L., Chen, Z., Beech, P., Foster, E., O'Brien, T. J., Kwan, P., & Neal, A.

An international survey of SEEG cortical stimulation practices. Epilepsia Open, September 2023. Cockle, E., Rayner, G., Malpas, C., Alpitsis, R., Rheims, S., O'Brien, T. J., & Neal, A.

Impact of epilepsy surgery on quality of life: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Epilepsia, 64(7), July 2023. Shakhatreh, L., Foster, E., Siriratnam, P., Neal, A., Carney, P. W., Jackson, G. D., O'Brien, T. J., Kwan, P., Chen, Z., & Ademi, Z.

Predictive models for starting antiseizure medication withdrawal following epilepsy surgery in adults. Brain, June 2023. Ferreira-Atuesta, C., de Tisi, J., McEvoy, A. W., Miserocchi, A., Khoury, J., Yardi, R., Vegh, D. T., Butler, J., Lee, H. J., Deli-Peri, V., Yao, Y., Wang, F. P., Zhang, X. B., Shakhatreh, L., Siriratnam, P., Neal, A., Sen, A., Tristram, M., Varghese, E., ... Galovic, M.

Somatic Mosaic Pathogenic Variant Gradient Detected in Trace Brain Tissue from Stereo-EEG Depth Electrodes. Neurology, December 2022. Ye, Z., Bennett, M. F., Neal, A., Laing, J. A., Hunn, M. K., Wittayacharoenpong, T., Todaro, M., Patel, S. K., Bahlo, M., Kwan, P., O'Brien, T. J., Scheffer, I. E., Berkovic, S. F., Perucca, P., & Hildebrand, M. S.