# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Epilepsy research and treatment Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/epilepsy-research-and-treatment/2026*

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

Drug-resistant epilepsy, seizure detection, and EEG-based analytics anchor the Class of 2026 epilepsy cohort, alongside long-term monitoring, surgical resection, and antiseizure medication themes. From Class of 2025 to 2026, long-term EEG monitoring, topiramate, valproate, and seizure prediction rose sharply while drug-resistant epilepsy and focal seizures receded among top-cited work.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| 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, EEG classification, long-term EEG monitoring, valproate |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 27–66 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved Jul 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Risk of Major Congenital Malformations and Exposure to Antiseizure Medication Monotherapy | Dina Battino, Torbjörn Tomson, Erminio Bonizzoni, John Craig, Emilio Perucca, Anne Sabers, Sanjeev Thomas, Silje Alvestad, Piero Perucca, Frank Vajda, EURAP Collaborators | Dina Battino | Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Italy | JAMA Neurology | 66 | 10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.0258 |
| 2 | Epileptic seizure prediction via multidimensional transformer and recurrent neural network fusion | Rong Zhu, Wen-Xin Pan, Jin-Xing Liu, Jun-Liang Shang | Wen-Xin Pan | Qufu Normal University, China | Journal of Translational Medicine | 59 | 10.1186/s12967-024-05678-7 |
| 3 | Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Prevention of Poststroke Epilepsy | Tomotaka Tanaka, Masafumi Ihara, Kazuki Fukuma, Nishant K Mishra, Matthias J Koepp, Alla Guekht, Akio Ikeda | Tomotaka Tanaka | National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Japan | Neurology | 41 | 10.1212/wnl.0000000000209450 |
| 4 | Determination of oxidative stress level and some antioxidant activities in refractory epilepsy patients | Abdullah Yilgor, Canan Demir | Abdullah Yılgör | Van YuzuncuYil University, Turkey | Scientific Reports | 39 | 10.1038/s41598-024-57224-6 |
| 5 | Spike ripples localize the epileptogenic zone best: an international intracranial study | Wen Shi, Dana Shaw, Katherine G Walsh, Xue Han, Uri T Eden, Robert M Richardson, Stephen V Gliske, Julia Jacobs, Benjamin H Brinkmann, Gregory A Worrell, William C Stacey, Birgit Frauscher, John Thomas, Mark A Kramer, Catherine J Chu | Wen Shi, Catherine J. Chu | Massachusetts General Hospital, United States | Brain | 36 | 10.1093/brain/awae037 |
| 6 | Development and validation of an automatic machine learning model to predict abnormal increase of transaminase in valproic acid-treated epilepsy | Hongying Ma, Sihui Huang, Fengxin Li, Zicheng Pang, Jian Luo, Danfeng Sun, Junsong Liu, Zhuoming Chen, Jian Qu, Qiang Qu | Qiang Qu | Central South University, China | Archives of Toxicology | 35 | 10.1007/s00204-024-03803-5 |
| 7 | Guidelines for Specialized Epilepsy Centers | Fred A Lado, Stephanie M Ahrens, Ellen Riker, Carrie R Muh, R Mark Richardson, Johanna Gray, Barbara Small, Sandra Z Lewis, Thomas J Schofield, Dave F Clarke, Jennifer L Hopp, Roland R Lee, Jay A Salpekar, Susan T Arnold, National Association of Epilepsy Guidelines for Specialized Epilepsy Centers Panel | Fred A Lado | Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, United States | Neurology | 34 | 10.1212/wnl.0000000000208087 |
| 8 | A scheme combining feature fusion and hybrid deep learning models for epileptic seizure detection and prediction | Jincan Zhang, Shaojie Zheng, Wenna Chen, Ganqin Du, Qizhi Fu, Hongwei Jiang | Wenna Chen | Henan University of Science and Technology, China | Scientific Reports | 34 | 10.1038/s41598-024-67855-4 |
| 9 | Refining management strategies for Lennox–Gastaut syndrome: Updated algorithms and practical approaches | Stéphane Auvin, Alexis Arzimanoglou, Mercè Falip, Pasquale Striano, J Helen Cross | Stéphane Auvin | INSERM NeuroDiderot, France | Epilepsia Open | 33 | 10.1002/epi4.13075 |
| 10 | Residual and bidirectional LSTM for epileptic seizure detection | Wei Zhao, Wen-Feng Wang, Lalit Mohan Patnaik, Bao-Can Zhang, Su-Jun Weng, Shi-Xiao Xiao, De-Zhi Wei, Hai-Feng Zhou | Wei Zhao, Wenfeng Wang | Jimei University, China | Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience | 32 | 10.3389/fncom.2024.1415967 |
| 11 | Over‐ and underreporting of seizures: How big is the problem? | Timothy Hannon, Kiran M Fernandes, Victoria Wong, Ewan S Nurse, Mark J Cook | Mark Cook | University of Melbourne, Australia | Epilepsia | 32 | 10.1111/epi.17930 |
| 12 | 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, Zeye Liu, Jing Xie, Mao Li, Shenqi Jing | Mao Li, Shenqi Jing | The First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, China | Frontiers in Neurology | 32 | 10.3389/fneur.2024.1418926 |
| 13 | Antiseizure medication use during pregnancy and children’s neurodevelopmental outcomes | Paul Madley-Dowd, Viktor H Ahlqvist, Harriet Forbes, Jessica E Rast, Florence Z Martin, Caichen Zhong, Ciarrah-Jane S Barry, Daniel Berglind, Michael Lundberg, Kristen Lyall, Craig J Newschaffer, Torbjörn Tomson, Neil M Davies, Cecilia Magnusson, Dheeraj Rai, Brian K Lee | Paul Madley‐Dowd, Viktor H. Ahlqvist | University of Bristol, United Kingdom | Nature Communications | 31 | 10.1038/s41467-024-53813-1 |
| 14 | The fasciola cinereum of the hippocampal tail as an interventional target in epilepsy | Ryan M Jamiolkowski, Quynh-Anh Nguyen, Jordan S Farrell, Ryan J McGinn, David A Hartmann, Jeff J Nirschl, Mateo I Sanchez, Vivek P Buch, Ivan Soltesz | Ryan M. Jamiolkowski, Quynh-Anh Nguyen | Stanford University, United States | Nature Medicine | 29 | 10.1038/s41591-024-02924-9 |
| 15 | <scp>SzCORE</scp>: Seizure Community Open‐Source Research Evaluation framework for the validation of <scp>electroencephalography</scp>‐based automated seizure detection algorithms | Jonathan Dan, Una Pale, Alireza Amirshahi, William Cappelletti, Thorir Mar Ingolfsson, Xiaying Wang, Andrea Cossettini, Adriano Bernini, Luca Benini, Sándor Beniczky, David Atienza, Philippe Ryvlin | Jonathan Dan | EPFL, Switzerland | Epilepsia | 29 | 10.1111/epi.18113 |
| 16 | Risk of Perinatal and Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Among Pregnant Women With Epilepsy | Neda Razaz, Jannicke Igland, Marte-Helene Bjørk, K S Joseph, Julie Werenberg Dreier, Nils Erik Gilhus, Mika Gissler, Maarit K Leinonen, Helga Zoega, Silje Alvestad, Jakob Christensen, Torbjörn Tomson | Neda Razaz | Karolinska Institutet, Sweden | JAMA Neurology | 29 | 10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.2375 |
| 17 | Hippocampal network activity forecasts epileptic seizures | Ankit N Khambhati, Edward F Chang, Maxime O Baud, Vikram R Rao | Vikram R. Rao | Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland | Nature Medicine | 28 | 10.1038/s41591-024-03149-6 |
| 18 | Ictal Involvement of the Pulvinar and the Anterior Nucleus of the Thalamus in Patients With Refractory Epilepsy | Ryan McGinn, Erica Leah Von Stein, Anjali Datta, Teresa Wu, Zoe Lusk, Spencer Nam, Manveer Dilts-Garcha, Robert S Fisher, Vivek Buch, Josef Parvizi | Ryan McGinn | Stanford University, United States | Neurology | 28 | 10.1212/wnl.0000000000210039 |
| 19 | Long-term neuropsychological trajectories in children with epilepsy: does surgery halt decline? | Maria H Eriksson, Freya Prentice, Rory J Piper, Konrad Wagstyl, Sophie Adler, Aswin Chari, John Booth, Friederike Moeller, Krishna Das, Christin Eltze, Gerald Cooray, Ana Perez Caballero, Lara Menzies, Amy McTague, Sara Shavel-Jessop, Martin M Tisdall, J Helen Cross, Patricia Martin Sanfilippo, Torsten Baldeweg | Maria H. Eriksson, Torsten Baldeweg | UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, United Kingdom | Brain | 27 | 10.1093/brain/awae121 |
| 20 | Multi‐omics technologies and molecular biomarkers in brain tumor‐related epilepsy | Yaoqiang Du, Rusong Li, Danqing Fu, Biqin Zhang, Ailin Cui, Yutian Shao, Zeyu Lai, Rongrong Chen, Bingyu Chen, Zhen Wang, Wei Zhang, Lisheng Chu | Yaoqiang Du, Wei Zhang, Lisheng Chu | Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, China | CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics | 27 | 10.1111/cns.14717 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The word cloud of canonical topics across the 50 highest 18-month-cited papers in epilepsy research and treatment reveals a field organized around refractory disease management, computational seizure analytics, and therapeutic decision-making rather than generic epidemiology labels. Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) remains the most frequently mentioned informative topic, appearing in 8 of 50 papers (normalized frequency 0.16), followed by seizure detection (6 papers, 0.12). A second tier clusters EEG-centric and monitoring themes—EEG classification, long-term EEG monitoring, and drug-resistant focal epilepsy each appear in 5 papers (0.10)—alongside surgical resection, valproate, topiramate, seizure prediction, and developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (4 papers each, 0.08). Larger type further highlights convolutional neural networks, attention mechanisms, hybrid deep learning models, intracranial EEG, epilepsy surgery, presurgical evaluation, and genotype–phenotype correlation, signaling that influential 2024 publications increasingly pair clinical refractory-epilepsy cohorts with machine-learning pipelines for detection, classification, and prediction. Antiseizure medication topics—including clobazam, lamotrigine, carbamazepine, and cenobamate—appear alongside centromedian nucleus stimulation and electrode localization, suggesting that high-impact work spans pharmacotherapy safety, neuromodulation targets, and surgical candidacy rather than a single modality.

*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. Drug-resistant epilepsy remained the leading theme but declined from a normalized frequency of 0.28 to 0.16 (−0.12), indicating that while refractory disease still anchors the leaderboard, other topics gained relative prominence. Focal seizures fell sharply (−0.10), and seizure detection (−0.06), surgical resection (−0.06), and Dravet syndrome (−0.06) also receded among the most-cited concept set. Conversely, long-term EEG monitoring rose from 0.02 to 0.10 (+0.08), and topiramate, valproate, and seizure prediction each climbed to 0.08 (+0.06–0.08 from near-zero baselines). Drug-resistant focal epilepsy, EEG classification, developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, electrode localization, and lamotrigine showed additional gains. The topic evolution card underscores that Class of 2026 bars extend furthest for long-term EEG monitoring, drug-resistant focal epilepsy, EEG classification, and several antiseizure medication themes—topics aligned with extended monitoring protocols, ML-assisted EEG analytics, and medication-outcome studies—while Class of 2025 led more strongly on broad DRE and seizure-detection framing. Together, these shifts suggest that the most-cited 2024 papers emphasize precision monitoring, named antiseizure regimens, and focal refractory subtypes over generalized seizure-detection and legacy focal-seizure narratives.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## 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 2026-07-14.

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
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