Is ChatGPT Better Than Epileptologists at Interpreting Seizure Semiology? (Preprint)
Authors: Ding Jun-En , Liu Feng 
Published: November 2024

BACKGROUND

This study evaluates the clinical utility of ChatGPT in interpreting seizure semiology for epileptogenic zone (EZ) localization in focal epilepsy presurgical assessment. We analyzed two datasets: 852 semiology-EZ pairs from 193 peer-reviewed publications and 184 pairs from Far Eastern Memorial Hospital (FEMH), Taiwan. ChatGPT's performance was tested using zero-shot and few-shot prompting methods, and compared against eight epileptologists' interpretations of 100 randomly selected cases. Performance was measured using regional sensitivity (RSens), weighted sensitivity (WSens), and net positive inference rate (NPIR). Results showed ChatGPT achieved >80% sensitivity for frontal and temporal lobes, ~40% for occipital lobe, 20-30% for parietal lobe, 20% for insular cortex, and 0% for cingulate cortex across both datasets. Compared to epileptologists, ChatGPT demonstrated superior performance in frontal and temporal lobe localization, comparable accuracy in occipital and parietal regions, but underperformed in insular and cingulate cortices. Both ChatGPT and epileptologists showed similar WSens and NPIR values. These findings suggest ChatGPT could serve as a valuable clinical tool in epilepsy presurgical workup, with potential for further improvement as language model technology advances.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to evaluate the clinical value of representative large language models (LLMs), namely ChatGPT, on interpreting seizure semiology to localize epileptogenic zones (EZs) for presurgical assessment in patients with focal epilepsy.

METHODS

We compiled two data cohorts through public sources and a private database respectively. The data cohort compiled from public sources consists of 852 semiology-EZ pairs derived from 193 peer-reviewed journal publications. The private database includes 184 semiology-EZ pairs collected from the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital (FEMH) in Taiwan. ChatGPT was asked to generate the most likely EZ locations based on the semiology records from both cohorts with two prompting methods: Zero-shot prompting (ZSP) and Few-shot prompting (FSP). To evaluate the ChatGPT’s performance compared to epileptologists, a panel of eight epileptologists were recruited for an online survey to provide their interpretations on 100 randomly selected semiology records. The responses from ChatGPT and epileptologists were compared using three metrics: regional sensitivity (RSens), weighted sensitivity (WSens) and net positive inference rate (NPIR).

RESULTS

In the evaluation of interpreting seizure semiology, ChatGPT achieved over 80% sensitivity for the frontal and temporal lobes, approximately 40% for the occipital lobe, 20-30% for the parietal lobe, 20% for the insular cortex, and 0% for the cingulate cortex consistently in both data cohorts. By analyzing the responses from epileptologists, ChatGPT-4 outperformed epileptologists in localizing the frontal and temporal lobes, exhibited similar accuracy for the occipital and parietal lobes, but underperformed in the insular and cingulate cortices. Both ChatGPT and epileptologists demonstrated comparable value for WSens and mean of NPIR.

CONCLUSIONS

In this cross-sectional study of seizure semiology interpretation, ChatGPT-generated responses outperformed or matched the responses from epileptologists in regions where EZs are commonly located, including the frontal lobe and the temporal lobe. However, epileptologists provided more accurate responses in regions where EZs are rarely located, such as the insula and the cingulate cortex. Overall, our results demonstrate that ChatGPT might serve as a valuable tool to assist in the preoperative assessment for epilepsy surgery. However, it must be acknowledged that the information provided by ChatGPT may not always be backed by reliable sources, posing a challenge to the verification of ChatGPT-generated responses.
Furthermore, medical professionals, including epileptologists and epilepsy surgeons, must fully recognize the limitations of ChatGPT and exercise caution when utilizing its responses. This study serves as an important reference for employing ChatGPT in seizure semiology interpretation while underscoring its present constraints.