This piece was inspired by a recent patient with medication refractory Temporal Lobe Epilepsy due to mesial temporal sclerosis. Intractable epilepsy can be a life altering and disabling condition and extremely tough to treat. Fortunately this patient came to us for surgical evaluation and consultation and after extensive work up including a prolonged EMU visit to capture scalp EEG recordings of her seizures, PET imaging to assess brain metabolic dysfunction, MEG studies that assess intracranial electrical dipoles, and a 7Tesla MRI imaging we were able to pinpoint her seizure network and devise a definitive and curative resection plan involving an anterior temporal lobectomy. 

This would involve removing a portion of her temporal lobe as well as the non dominant hippocampus which can result in visuospatial memory impairment, but allowing seizure freedom. Hippocampus is the Greek word for seahorse given the structural and anatomical resemblance. 

This patients seizure semiology would involve covering her face with perseveration of speech. So in this painting I aimed to uncover a face and bring back the colors to life, as we hope to do for her. Purple is the color for Epilepsy and represented by the purple seahorse.