Brain zaps for seizures: tiny trial tests new target

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Participants are between the ages of 14 -65 years of age * Refractory to anti-seizure medications (ASMs). * Persistence of disabling seizures at least 3 times per 3 months or greater, and once or more in recent 1 month. * After comprehensive preoperative evaluation, patients who are considered unsuitable for or refuse resection surgery, or those for whom the effects of epileptic focus resection and thermocoagulation surgery are not satisfactory. * Participants must have had a non-invasive video-EEG monitoring revealing seizure semiology and ictal EEG consistent with bilateral Temporal Lobe Epilepsy * Biliteral hippocampal atrophy on MRI T1 imaging with increased ipsilateral mesial signal on T2 imaging * Informed consent signed. Exclusion Criteria: * Diagnosed with generalized or hereditary epilepsy with ion channel gene mutations; * Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures within 12 months; * Presence of implanted electrical stimulation medical device anywhere in the body (e.g., pacemaker, spinal cord stimulator, responsive neurostimulation) or any metallic implants in the head (e.g., aneurysm clips, cochlear implants). Note: Vagal nerve stimulators are allowed if the parameter remains stable for at least 3 months prior to the screening visit; * Risk factors that would put the participant at risk for intraoperative or postoperative bleeding. (e.g., coagulation abnormalities, etc.) or the need for chronic anticoagulation or antiplatelet aggregation medications; * IQ \< 55 or severe cognitive dysfunction, unable to complete the study; * Diagnosed with a progressive neurological disorder (including progressive Rasmussen's encephalitis, etc.); * Diagnosed with a severe neuropsychiatric disorder such as dementia, major depression (admission to a psychiatric specialty/hospital within 5 years or any suicidal or self-injurious tendencies), schizophrenia, or neurodegenerative disorders; * Diagnosed with other serious physical disorders, internal diseases or severe abnormalities in liver or kidney function; * Pregnant, or planning to pregnant within 2 years; * Participation in another clinical study within 3 months; * Not suitable for enrollment as assessed by the multidisciplinary team of the center.