In this talk I will review evidence supporting the premise that epilepsy has taught us more about the human brain than any other neurological condition. I will review early studies that have led to the understanding of localized cortical function, which formed the basis of initial attempts at
understanding information processing within the brain. I will then describe the ongoing work here at the University of Toronto, specifically as it relates to understanding the key integrative role of cortical oscillations in communication and computations in the brain. The investigations that I will review will span many levels of investigations, from the activity of single human cortical neurons, to small cortical
microcircuits, and then up to large scale integration
– all as a byproduct of the clinical care afforded to
people with epilepsy. Finally I will attempt to provide a brief view towards the future and how potentially we can take an integrative approach to understanding the human brain
an disorders of it through collaborative efforts between the Surgical Epilepsy Program at the Toronto Western Hospital,
Department of Mathematics, and various Engineering Faculties.
Taufik Valiante completed his residency in the Neurosurgery Training Program at the University of Toronto in 2002, and an Epilepsy Surgery Fellowship at the University of Washington, Seattle, under the mentorship of Dr. George Ojemann in 2003. In 2007 he established a state of the art five-bed Epilepsy
Monitoring Unit (EMU) at the Toronto Western Hospital, which in 2014 expanded again to become the largest adult EMU in the Canada. Through his involvement with professional and not-for profit epilepsy organizations, he is a strident advocate for the standardization of epilepsy care. His research focuses on
in vivo and in vitro electrophysiological recordings of brain activity. His particular interest is in the association of such activity with cognitive processes, and the cellular mechanisms that underlie them. He studies the pathological disruption of such activity using optogenetics, and computational techniques. He is currently Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Surgical Epilepsy Program at the Krembil Neuroscience Center. He as well is a Scientist at the Krembil Research Institute, and has a cross-appointment to the Institute of
Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering.