Personalized medicine studies reveal gene targets for epilepsy
Technological advances ranging from gene editing to next-generation sequencing offer unprecedented access to the human genome and promise to reshape the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.
View ArticleComputer model could hold key to personalized epilepsy treatment
A computer model that identifies the parts of a person's brain responsible for epileptic seizures could be used to design personalised surgical procedures, researchers say.
View ArticleUsing network science to help pinpoint source of seizures
The ability to reliably pinpoint the anatomical source of epileptic seizures, different for each patient, remains elusive. One third of patients do not respond to medication and an alternative can be...
View ArticleScientists identify mechanisms to reduce epileptic seizures following TBI
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that halting production of new neurons in the brain following traumatic brain injury can help reduce resulting epileptic seizures, cognitive...
View ArticleBrain waves may be spread by weak electrical field
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University may have found a new way information is communicated throughout the brain.
View ArticleScientists decode brain signals nearly at speed of perception
Using electrodes implanted in the temporal lobes of awake patients, scientists have decoded brain signals at nearly the speed of perception. Further, analysis of patients' neural responses to two...
View ArticleLink between malformations of the cerebral cortex and the occurrence of epilepsy
Why does a structural irregularity in the temporal lobe make humans more susceptible to epileptic seizures? Experts have been searching for the answer to this question for a long time. A group of...
View ArticleExtreme events in the brain
Physicists at the Universities of Bonn and Oldenburg have developed a model whose behavior – although based on strict rules – can apparently change spontaneously. There are also changes of this type in...
View ArticleComplement immune system involved in rare epilepsy
The complement system, which forms part of our immune system, is involved in a special form of epilepsy. This is the conclusion of a recently published single-case study. The study, carried out as part...
View ArticleHeart rate variability predicts epileptic seizure
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes seizures of many different types. Recent research from Japan has found that epileptic seizures can be more easily predicted by using an electrocardiogram...
View ArticleCrowdsourcing contest using data from people, dogs advances epileptic seizure...
It might sound like a riddle: What do you get when you combine one online contest, two patients, five dogs and 654 data scientists?
View ArticleFolic acid during pregnancy could help to prevent autism caused by...
If pregnant women take antiepileptic drugs, the child can develop autistic traits. The administration of folic acid preparations appears to be a suitable means of preventing this serious side-effect....
View ArticleCan anti-inflammatory therapies be effective against epilepsy?
In epileptic patients, seizures lead to an increased level of inflammation-related proteins called chemokines in the brain, and systemic inflammation likely helps trigger and promote the recurrence of...
View ArticleCause of cortical malformations targeted by researchers
Cortical malformations are a major cause of epileptic seizures and are a hallmark feature of many neurodevelopmental disorders. Expanding upon its recently-published model of cortical malformations, a...
View ArticleScientists track down possible new treatment for epilepsy
Increasing the concentration of specific fats in the brain could suppress epileptic seizures. This is evident from ground-breaking research carried out by the research groups of Professor Patrik...
View ArticleWhy exposure to rhythmic stimulation at certain frequencies facilitate...
Why does exposure to rhythmic stimulation at certain frequencies facilitate the occurrence of epileptic seizures?
View ArticleRobot reduces need for open brain surgery to map epileptic seizures
A minimally invasive robotic device is eliminating the need for some patients to undergo open brain surgery to pinpoint the origin of their epileptic seizures. The device, in use at Duke and a small...
View ArticleNew mechanism underlying epilepsy found
Prolonged epileptic seizures may cause serious problems that will continue for the rest of a patient's life. As a result of a seizure, neural connections of the brain may be rewired in an incorrect...
View ArticleSuppressing epileptic seizures via Anderson localization
More than 50 million people of all ages suffer from epilepsy, otherwise known as seizure disorder, the fourth most common neurological disease in the world. Patients diagnosed with epilepsy often...
View ArticleStress a common seizure trigger in epilepsy, study affirms
Patients with epilepsy face many challenges, but perhaps the most difficult of all is the unpredictability of seizure occurrence. One of the most commonly reported triggers for seizures is stress.
View ArticleEpilepsy breakthrough: Implant helps stop brain seizures
Imagine a seismograph - the instrument that measures and records earthquakes and volcanic eruptions - for your brain. Except this one has a wireless link to a device implanted in your head that stops...
View ArticleBrain model explores the cause of different epileptic seizure onset patterns
At the onset of an epileptic seizure, differing characteristics of brain tissue surrounding the seizure's origin site may determine which of two main patterns of brain activity will be seen, according...
View ArticleA new molecular mechanism related to epilepsy and intellectual disability
Epilepsy and intellectual disability, which usually have their onset during childhood, are in some cases linked to mutations in the gene KIAA1202, which contains the information to produce the protein...
View ArticleResearchers find micro-gene that protects the brain from developing epilepsy
On December 16, 1997, hundreds of Japanese children were brought to hospital suffering from epilepsy-like seizures. They all had one thing in common: they had been watching an episode of the Pokemon TV...
View ArticleResearchers uncover the fundamental importance of AMPA receptor biogenesis...
For the first time, researchers have uncovered the significance of the molecular assembly processes—called biogenesis—of AMPA-type glutamate receptors for proper operation of the human brain. AMPA...
View ArticleEpilepsy biomarkers pave way for noninvasive diagnosis, better treatments
Researchers have identified a unique metabolic signature associated with epileptic brain tissue that causes seizures. The chemical biomarker can be detected noninvasively using technology based on...
View ArticleMemory decline after head injury may be prevented by slowing brain cell growth
The excessive burst of new brain cells after a traumatic head injury that scientists have traditionally believed helped in recovery could instead lead to epileptic seizures and long-term cognitive...
View ArticleEpileptic seizures show long-distance effects
The area in which an epileptic seizure starts in the brain, may be small but it reaches other parts of the brain at distances of over ten centimeters. That distant activity, in turn, influences the...
View ArticleSimulating a brain-cooling treatment that could one day ease epilepsy
Using computer simulation techniques, scientists have gained new insights into the mechanism by which lowering the temperature of specific brain regions could potentially treat epileptic seizures. The...
View ArticleBrain-machine interfaces to treat neurological disease
Since the 19th century at least, humans have wondered what could be accomplished by linking our brains – smart and flexible but prone to disease and disarray – directly to technology in all its cold,...
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