Topics and Trends in Most Cited Epilepsy research and treatment Papers

Ranked by citations 18 months after publication

Class of 2026 (Papers Published in 2024)

What topics and trends defined most-cited Epilepsy research and treatment research in the Class of 2026?

Drug-resistant epilepsy, drug-resistant focal epilepsy, and seizure detection anchor the Class of 2026 epilepsy cohort, alongside EEG-based prediction, valproate and cenobamate safety, and long-term monitoring. From Class of 2025 to 2026, focal refractory disease, extended EEG monitoring, and status epilepticus rose sharply while epilepsy surgery and epileptogenic-zone localization receded among top-cited work.

See details ↓

Updated July 19, 2026

At a glance

Field
Epilepsy research and treatment
Cohort label
Class of 2026 (2024 publications)
Papers analyzed
7,354
Papers ranked
20
Top topics in ranked papers
Drug-resistant epilepsy, seizure detection, drug-resistant focal epilepsy, valproate, long-term EEG monitoring
Publication window
Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024
Eligibility
Research articles; reviews excluded
Citation window
18 months post-publication
18m citation range
25–66
Data source
OpenAlex · Retrieved Jul 2026
License
CC BY 4.0

Rankings

20 papers ranked by 18-month citation count

#1 of 7,354
6618m citations

Risk of Major Congenital Malformations and Exposure to Antiseizure Medication Monotherapy

Dina Battino et al.JAMA Neurology202410.1001/jamaneurol.2024.0258

Dina BattinoFondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Italy

Antiseizure medicationsmajor congenital malformationsprenatal exposurewomen with epilepsyValproatelamotriginelevetiracetamcarbamazepinephenobarbitaloxcarbazepinetopiramatephenytoinASM monotherapyTeratogenicityprospective pregnancy registryexposure pattern shiftoffspring outcomespregnancy outcome assessment
Badge
#2 of 7,354
5918m citations

Epileptic seizure prediction via multidimensional transformer and recurrent neural network fusion

Rong Zhu et al.Journal of Translational Medicine202410.1186/s12967-024-05678-7

Wen-Xin PanQufu Normal University, China

Seizure predictionEEG signalmultidimensional TransformerLSTM-GRU fusionShort-time Fourier Transform (STFT)Time-frequency featuresgating mechanismBonn EEG datasetCHB-MIT scalp EEG databaserecurrent neural networkSeizure classificationsensitivity and specificity metricstemporal and frequency characteristics
Badge
#4 of 7,354
3618m citations

Spike ripples localize the epileptogenic zone best: an international intracranial study

Wen Shi et al.Brain202410.1093/brain/awae037

Wen Shi, Catherine J. ChuMassachusetts General Hospital, United States

spike ripplesEpileptogenic zoneIntracranial EEG (iEEG)interictal biomarkersautomated spike ripple detectorHigh-frequency oscillations (HFOs)ripples (80-250 Hz)fast ripples (250-500 Hz)Epileptiform spikesspike-gammaEpilepsy surgeryILAE outcome classificationdepth electrodessubdural electrodesmulticentre international studyresection volume localizationseizure-free outcome predictionEpileptiform activity detection
Badge
#5 of 7,354
3518m citations

Development and validation of an automatic machine learning model to predict abnormal increase of transaminase in valproic acid-treated epilepsy

Hongying Ma, Sihui Huang et al.Archives of Toxicology202410.1007/s00204-024-03803-5

Qiang QuCentral South University, China

machine learningValproatetransaminase elevationHepatotoxicityepilepsyAutoMLpredictive model validationAntiseizure medicationsalanine aminotransferaseaspartate aminotransferasePharmacovigilanceclinical prediction modelliver function monitoringfeature selection
Badge
#6 of 7,354
3418m citations

A scheme combining feature fusion and hybrid deep learning models for epileptic seizure detection and prediction

Jincan Zhang et al.Scientific Reports202410.1038/s41598-024-67855-4

Wenna ChenHenan University of Science and Technology, China

Seizure detectionSeizure predictionfeature fusionCNN-GRU-AM modelConvolutional Neural Networkgated recurrent unitattention mechanismEEG signalDiscrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)Time-frequency featuresnonlinear featuresCHB-MIT scalp EEG database10-fold cross-validationmulti-class classification
Badge
#7 of 7,354
3218m citations

Residual and bidirectional LSTM for epileptic seizure detection

Wei Zhao et al.Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience202410.3389/fncom.2024.1415967

Wei Zhao, Wenfeng WangJimei University, China

ResBiLSTMSeizure detectionEEG signalone-dimensional residual neural networkBidirectional long short-term memoryResNetlocal spatial featurestemporal dependenciesBonn EEG datasetTemple University Hospital dataset (TUSZ)TUH seizure corpusbinary classificationternary classificationSeizure classification10-fold cross-validationF1 score
Badge
#8 of 7,354
3218m citations

Over‐ and underreporting of seizures: How big is the problem?

Timothy Hannon et al.Epilepsia202410.1111/epi.17930

Mark CookUniversity of Melbourne, Australia

Seizure reporting accuracyVideo-EEG monitoringpatient-reported seizureselectroencephalographic findingsnoncorrelated eventspsychogenic eventsepileptic seizuresfocal epilepsygeneralized epilepsystate of arousalelectrographic dischargesscalp electrodesclinical motor eventsretrospective data analysis
Badge
#9 of 7,354
3218m citations

Global, regional, and national time trends in the burden of epilepsy, 1990–2019: an age-period-cohort analysis for the global burden of disease 2019 study

Tao Shan, Yahui Zhu, Haozhi Fan et al.Frontiers in Neurology202410.3389/fneur.2024.1418926

Mao Li, Shenqi JingThe First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, China

epilepsy burdenage-period-cohort (APC) modelGlobal Burden of Disease Studyyears lived with disability (YLDs)Age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR)age-standardized YLD ratenet driftperiod effectcohort effectage effectprevalence trendsnon-communicable neurological diseaseOlder adult epilepsydisability burdenTemporal trend analysiscountry-level analysisepilepsy preventionepilepsy health education
Badge
#10 of 7,354
3118m citations

Antiseizure medication use during pregnancy and children’s neurodevelopmental outcomes

Paul Madley-Dowd, Viktor H Ahlqvist et al.Nature Communications202410.1038/s41467-024-53813-1

Paul Madley‐Dowd, Viktor H. AhlqvistUniversity of Bristol, United Kingdom

Antiseizure medicationsValproatetopiramatecarbamazepinelamotrigineprenatal ASM exposureautism diagnosisintellectual disabilityADHDNeurodevelopmental outcomesTeratogenicityprimary care data UKSwedish nationwide registriesroutinely collected health datapregnancy cohortsibling comparisonepilepsy in pregnancypreconception counselingcomparative safety
Badge
#11 of 7,354
2918m citations

The fasciola cinereum of the hippocampal tail as an interventional target in epilepsy

Ryan M Jamiolkowski, Quynh-Anh Nguyen et al.Nature Medicine202410.1038/s41591-024-02924-9

Ryan M. Jamiolkowski, Quynh-Anh NguyenStanford University, United States

fasciola cinereumHippocampal tailmesial temporal lobe epilepsyDrug-resistant epilepsyanterior hippocampus ablationseizure nodeclosed-loop optogenetic inhibitiongenetically defined neuronsspontaneous seizurestargeted tissue ablationFC lesioningseizure duration reductionStereoelectroencephalography (SEEG)mouse epilepsy modelhuman epilepsy cohortinterventional neurosurgery targetseizure burdenhippocampal neuronal activity
Badge
#12 of 7,354
2918m citations

<scp>SzCORE</scp>: Seizure Community Open‐Source Research Evaluation framework for the validation of <scp>electroencephalography</scp>‐based automated seizure detection algorithms

Jonathan Dan et al.Epilepsia202410.1111/epi.18113

Jonathan DanEPFL, Switzerland

Seizure detectionElectroencephalography (EEG)SzCORE frameworkEEG 10-20 seizure detection benchmarkLong-term EEG monitoringcross-validation strategiesseizure annotationperformance metricsstandardized file formatsAI benchmarkingpublic EEG datasetsvalidation methodology standardizationopen-source software libraryepilepsyEEG 10-20 systemclinical significance evaluationEEG data preprocessing
Badge
#13 of 7,354
2918m citations

Risk of Perinatal and Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Among Pregnant Women With Epilepsy

Neda Razaz et al.JAMA Neurology202410.1001/jamaneurol.2024.2375

Neda RazazKarolinska Institutet, Sweden

maternal epilepsyAntiseizure medicationsperinatal mortalitysevere maternal morbidityneonatal morbidityneonatal convulsionsstillbirthssevere preeclampsiadisseminated intravascular coagulationcerebrovascular eventspostpartum mortalityembolismsevere mental health conditionspopulation-based register studyNordic cohort (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden)singleton birthsprenatal ASM exposuregeneralized estimating equationsadjusted odds ratiosmaternal mortality
Badge
#14 of 7,354
2818m citations

Hippocampal network activity forecasts epileptic seizures

Maxime O Baud, Vikram R Rao et al.Nature Medicine202410.1038/s41591-024-03149-6

Vikram R. RaoUniversity of California, Switzerland

hippocampal network activityepileptic seizuresSeizure predictionhippocampusneural population dynamicselectrophysiologylocal field potentialepilepsy biomarkerspre-ictal stateIctal activitynetwork synchronyin vivo recordingtheta oscillationsgamma oscillationsspike-wave dischargetemporal lobe epilepsymachine learning classifierseizure onset zoneInterictal activity
Badge
#15 of 7,354
2718m citations

Long-term neuropsychological trajectories in children with epilepsy: does surgery halt decline?

Maria H Eriksson et al.Brain202410.1093/brain/awae121

Maria H. Eriksson, Torsten BaldewegUCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, United Kingdom

Drug-resistant epilepsyEpilepsy surgeryneuropsychological trajectoriesSeizure freedomintellectual disabilityfull-scale IQverbal IQperformance IQworking memoryprocessing speedacademic attainmentantiseizure medication cessationPresurgical evaluationpediatric epilepsy surgeryGreat Ormond Street Hospital cohortpostoperative neuropsychological outcomesfocal epilepsyIQ declineretrospective cohort studyearly surgical intervention
Badge
#16 of 7,354
2718m citations

A population-based analysis of the global burden of epilepsy across all age groups (1990–2021): utilizing the Global Burden of Disease 2021 data

Ling-Zhi Yang et al.Frontiers in Neurology202410.3389/fneur.2024.1448596

Chen-qi ZhangChengdu BOE Hospital, China

Global Burden of Disease StudyDisability-adjusted life years (DALYs)Age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR)Age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR)Age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR)age-standardized DALYs rate (ASDR)epilepsy burden204 countries and regionssocio-demographic index (SDI)Pediatric epilepsyOlder adult epilepsysex-disaggregated epidemiologyTemporal trend analysisuncertainty intervals (UI)population-based analysislow SDI regionsepilepsy risk factorscross-sectional epidemiological study
Badge
#17 of 7,354
2618m citations

Identification of four biotypes in temporal lobe epilepsy via machine learning on brain images

Yuchao Jiang, Wei Li et al.Nature Communications202410.1038/s41467-024-46629-6

Yuchao Jiang, Dong Zhou, Cheng Luo, Dongmei AnFudan University, China

temporal lobe epilepsySubtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn)machine learningstructural MRIbiotypesHippocampal atrophyamygdala enlargementneocortex atrophydisease subtypingPhenotypic heterogeneitypathobiological progressionseizure outcomesTemporal lobe surgeryfocal epilepsyneuroanatomical signaturecross-sectional imagingstratificationTreatment responseDisease progression modelingChinese Clinical Trials Registry
Badge
#18 of 7,354
2618m citations

Investigating the effect of polygenic background on epilepsy phenotype in ‘monogenic’ families

Karen L Oliver et al.EBioMedicine202410.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105404

Melanie BahloWalter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia

Polygenic risk scoreGenetic epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+)Monogenic epilepsyPhenotypic heterogeneitypenetrancefebrile seizuresDevelopmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE)GABRG2 p.Arg82GlnSCN1B p.Cys121Trprare pathogenic variantsfamilial epilepsygenetic modifiersGenotype-phenotype correlationphenotype severity gradingmixed-effect regression modelspairwise PRS differencevariant-specific effectscommon polygenic risk
Badge
#19 of 7,354
2618m citations

Ictal Involvement of the Pulvinar and the Anterior Nucleus of the Thalamus in Patients With Refractory Epilepsy

Ryan McGinn et al.Neurology202410.1212/wnl.0000000000210039

Ryan McGinnStanford University, United States

Deep brain stimulationAnterior nucleus of the thalamuspulvinar (PLV) nucleusDrug-resistant epilepsyStereoelectroencephalography (SEEG)multisite thalamic recordingsseizure propagationMesial temporal lobe seizureshippocampal onset seizuresamygdalar onset seizuresFocal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizuresfocal impaired awareness seizuresseizure onset zonethalamic nuclei involvementcontralateral thalamic spreadStanford Comprehensive Epilepsy CenterEpilepsy surgeryDBS target personalizationthalamic subdivision mapping
Badge
#20 of 7,354
2518m citations

Second‐line immunotherapy in new onset refractory status epilepticus

Aurélie Hanin et al.Epilepsia202410.1111/epi.17933

Lawrence J. HirschYale University, United States

New-onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE)NORSEFebrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES)FIRESsecond-line immunotherapyanakinratocilizumabintrathecal dexamethasonecytokine levelsCerebrospinal fluid cytokinesserum cytokinesseizure controlimmune dysregulationpost-NORSE epilepsyDrug-resistant epilepsystatus epilepticusimmunomodulationacute phase treatmentlong-term functional outcomes
Badge

Dominant research themes and year-over-year shifts in Epilepsy research and treatment

What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The informative word cloud across the 50 highest 18-month-cited epilepsy research and treatment papers reveals a field organized around refractory disease management, computational seizure analytics, and antiseizure medication decision-making rather than generic epidemiology labels. Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is the most frequently mentioned informative topic, appearing in 13 of 50 papers (normalized frequency 0.26), followed by seizure detection (9 papers, 0.18) and drug-resistant focal epilepsy (7 papers, 0.14). A second tier clusters surgical and predictive themes—epilepsy surgery and seizure prediction each appear in 5 papers (0.10)—alongside valproate, cenobamate, long-term EEG monitoring, status epilepticus, and cognitive impairment (4 papers each, 0.08). Larger type further highlights convolutional neural networks, the CHB-MIT and Bonn EEG datasets, intracranial EEG, focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures, and topiramate, signaling that influential 2024 publications increasingly pair clinical refractory-epilepsy cohorts with machine-learning pipelines for detection, classification, and prediction. Antiseizure medication topics—including lamotrigine, carbamazepine, and perampanel—appear alongside pediatric epilepsy and deep brain stimulation, suggesting that high-impact work spans pharmacotherapy safety, neuromodulation targets, and surgical candidacy rather than a single modality.

Leading research themes
Leading research themes

How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Comparing normalized concept frequencies between the Class of 2025 (2023 publications) and Class of 2026 (2024 publications) cohorts shows a rebalancing of early-high-impact epilepsy research priorities toward focal refractory subtypes, extended monitoring, and medication-specific outcomes. Drug-resistant focal epilepsy exhibited the largest gain among leading themes (+0.08 normalized frequency; 3 versus 7 papers), followed by long-term EEG monitoring (+0.08; 0 versus 4). Cognitive impairment, valproate, status epilepticus, and focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures each climbed +0.06 (to 0.08), while seizure prediction rose +0.04 (0.06 to 0.10) and drug-resistant epilepsy itself strengthened modestly (+0.04; 0.22 to 0.26). The topic evolution card underscores that Class of 2026 bars extend furthest for drug-resistant focal epilepsy, long-term EEG monitoring, valproate, cenobamate, and status epilepticus—topics aligned with extended monitoring protocols, ASM safety studies, and refractory focal cohorts—while Class of 2025 led more strongly on broad antiseizure medication framing. Conversely, epilepsy surgery (−0.04; 0.14 to 0.10) and epileptogenic zone localization (−0.04; 0.08 to 0.04) receded among the most-cited concept set, alongside a modest decline in convolutional neural network prominence (−0.02). Together, these shifts suggest that the most-cited 2024 papers emphasize precision monitoring, named antiseizure regimens, focal refractory subtypes, and status epilepticus management over generalized surgery-localization narratives.

How topics shifted year over year
How topics shifted year over year
Methodology

PRI identifies high-impact research using a transparent, topic-agnostic framework applied consistently across scientific domains. Bibliographic records are drawn from OpenAlex, including publication dates, citation relationships, and document types.

This ranking covers the Class of 2026 cohort: journal articles published in 2024. Reviews and other non-article document types are excluded to ensure comparability.

Research impact is quantified with an 18-month post-publication citation window—the number of citing works published within 18 months of each paper's publication date. This metric captures early impact while controlling for publication age.

An LLM-based relevance classifier then reviews each candidate's title and abstract to confirm substantive alignment with the target domain. Only papers classified as relevant appear in the final ranking.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459

Full methodologyGitHubbioRxiv preprint

Cite this ranking

Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Epilepsy research and treatment Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/epilepsy-research-and-treatment/2026. Accessed 2026-08-20.

Methodology
Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459