Jeffrey R. Tenney, MD, PhD

Biography

In my research, I focus on trying to better understand how seizures start and spread in the brain. To accomplish this goal, I use noninvasive neuroimaging technologies and neurophysiology techniques.

My research is a natural extension of my PhD thesis work with rats and monkeys — as a student in a combined MD/PhD program, I was interested in the brain. But I also enjoyed caring for children, and I wanted to shift my research to them. My thesis focused on better understanding brain networks involved in a particular type of pediatric epilepsy. During this work, I met a pediatric neurologist who ultimately influenced me to pursue clinical and research work in pediatric epilepsy.

Now, I specialize in epilepsy, clinical neurophysiology, electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). My current research efforts focus on understanding the brain networks responsible for seizures so clinicians can devise better ways of stopping them. Specifically, I study generalized seizures which researchers typically consider having no focal onset.

My research and clinical work are closely tied. I am the clinical director of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center MEG Center. Clinicians use the center’s services for pre-surgical evaluations of pediatric epilepsy patients. I also evaluate and manage patients with epilepsy in the outpatient epilepsy clinic and the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, with a special interest in children diagnosed with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE).

I serve on the board of directors for the American Clinical MEG Society (ACMEGS). I am a member of the American Epilepsy Society, the Organization for Human Brain Mapping and the Child Neurology Society. I also received the Taking Flight Award from Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE).