Eric Payne

Broadly, we hope to improve the long-term neurocognitive outcomes of neonates and children with medically-refractory epilepsy, and those who require intensive care for critical brain injury including status epilepticus. I have specific interest in using continuous video-electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring and quantitative trends analysis, to prognosticate outcomes, quantify electrographic seizure burden and support seizure treatment.  We are especially interested in abnormal innate and adaptive neuroinflammation as a cause or consequence of brain injury and prolonged seizures. Through improved detection of inflammation, we hope to identify children amenable to targeted immunomodulation therapies. For instance, among some patients with febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES), we previously identified aberrant interleukin-1 pathway inflammation responsive to targeted immunosuppression with anakinra (an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist).