AI Tool Helps Detect Epilepsy in Children, Changing Lives

An eight-year-old boy named John experienced a life-altering moment when he woke up one night feeling strange. His arms were stiffening and jerking, and he felt as if he were falling. This marked the beginning of his struggle with epilepsy, which led to multiple seizures each day for years. "It completely rocked our world," said John's father, Spiros.

In Australia, about one in 200 children has epilepsy, with many experiencing uncontrolled or drug-resistant seizures. Dr. Emma Macdonald-Laurs, a neurologist at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, explained that seizures often begin unexpectedly during preschool or early school years and can escalate to multiple occurrences daily. Prolonged uncontrolled seizures can lead to learning difficulties, including intellectual disabilities.

Now 11 years old, John is one of over 21,000 children in Victoria diagnosed with cortical dysplasias, a common cause of epilepsy. Since May 2025, he has been seizure-free, thanks to a new AI tool developed by researchers at Murdoch Children's Research Institute and The Royal Children's Hospital. This tool helped identify a small dysplasia lesion in John's brain, leading to targeted surgery that transformed his life. "I just wanted to get it out of me," John said. "After the surgery, now I feel much better and now we're just back to normal."

Cortical dysplasias are often difficult to detect on standard MRI scans, with less than half being identified during a child's initial scan. To address this, researchers created an advanced AI tool dubbed the "AI epilepsy detective" to quickly locate tiny brain lesions and facilitate more precise treatment. Dr. Macdonald-Laurs noted, "Epilepsy due to cortical dysplasia can be improved or cured with epilepsy surgery if the abnormal brain tissue can be located and removed."

The study involved 71 children at the Royal Children's Hospital and 23 adults at the Austin Hospital, all diagnosed with cortical dysplasia and focal epilepsy. Published in the journal Epilepsia, the research found lesions as small as blueberries in up to 94 percent of cases. Dr. Macdonald-Laurs emphasized that the AI tool does not replace human expertise but acts as a "detective" to help medical professionals identify issues more efficiently.

The AI tool was trained using PET scans, which measure brain activity and highlight abnormalities. Dr. Sila Genc from the MCRI Developmental Imaging Group explained that combining advanced imaging techniques allowed the AI to detect lesions with greater accuracy. The study revealed that 80 percent of patients had their diagnoses missed by human examination of MRI results. The AI tool can analyze large data sets to guide radiologists in identifying abnormalities.

The best outcomes were achieved when both MRI and PET scan data were utilized, resulting in a 94 percent success rate. Among the 17 children in the study, 12 underwent surgery, and 11 are now seizure-free.

Six-year-old Royal faced severe challenges, experiencing clusters of up to 19 seizures within two hours. His mother, Gurjinder, described how the seizures escalated from a few daily to one every half hour, leading to a loss of appetite. Doctors eventually identified Royal's cortical dysplasia with the AI tool, and after the lesion was removed, he has not had a seizure since.

While researchers noted a small risk of radiation exposure from PET scans, they emphasized that such scans are commonly used in epilepsy diagnosis. The team plans to test the AI tool in pediatric hospitals across Australia. Dr. Macdonald-Laurs stated, "Our next plans are to test this detector in more real-life hospital settings on new, undiagnosed patients across Australia, and also to research what children, parents, and doctors think about us using AI in their epilepsy diagnosis."

John expressed feeling "safe in the hands" of his doctors and is optimistic about the advancements in epilepsy treatment. His father, Spiros, described the outcome as "like a dream with a wonderful ending," adding, "The results are just … there's no words to explain it, it's just amazing."