Musical Brain Patterns Could Help Predict Epileptic Seizures

ScienceDaily (June 15, 2012) — The research led by Newcastle University's Dr Mark Cunningham and Professor Miles Whittington and supported by the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, indicates a novel electrical bio-marker in humans.

The brain produces electrical rhythms and using EEG -- electrodes on the scalp -- researchers were able to monitor the brain patterns in patients with epilepsy. Both in patients and in brain tissue samples the team were able to witness an abnormal brain wave noticeable due to its rapidly increasing frequency over time.

Comparing these to a musical 'glissando', an upwards glide from one pitch to another, the team found that this brain rhythm is unique to humans and they believe it could be related to epilepsy.

Dr Cunningham, senior lecturer in Neuronal Dynamics at Newcastle University said: "We were able to examine EEG collected from patients with drug resistant epilepsy who were continually monitored over a two week period. During that time we noticed patterns of electrical activity with rapidly increasing frequency, just like glissandi, emerging in the lead-up to an epileptic seizure."

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Master Switch for Adult Epilepsy Discovered

ScienceDaily (June 27, 2011) — UC Irvine and French researchers have identified a central switch responsible for the transformation of healthy brain cells into epileptic ones, opening the way to both treat and prevent temporal lobe epilepsy.

Epilepsy affects 1 to 2 percent of the world's population, and TLE is the most common form of the disorder in adults. Among adult neurologic conditions, only migraine headaches are more prevalent. TLE is resistant to treatment in 30 percent of cases.

UCI neurologist and neuroscientist Dr. Tallie Z. Baram and her colleagues found that TLE manifests after a major reorganization of the molecules governing the behavior of neurons, the cells that communicate within the brain. These alterations often stem from prolonged febrile seizures, brain infections or trauma.

"This discovery marks a dramatic change in our understanding of how TLE comes about. Previously, it was believed that neurons died after damaging events and that the remaining neurons reorganized with abnormal connections," said Baram, the Danette Shepard Chair in Neurological Studies. "However, in both people and model animals, epilepsy can arise without the apparent death of brain cells. The neurons simply seem to behave in a very abnormal way."

To learn why, Baram's UCI team collaborated with a French group led by Christophe Bernard of the University of Marseille and Inserm. They focused on ion channels, molecules that straddle the boundaries of brain cells and govern how they fire and communicate among themselves.

Prognosis Good for Most Children With Epilepsy: Study

THURSDAY, June 17 (HealthDay News) -- Children with new-onset epilepsy of unknown origin have a much higher rate of remission than those with symptomatic epilepsy, caused by underlying brain damage or disease.

That's the finding of a new study by researchers in The Netherlands who evaluated the course and outcome of childhood epilepsy in 413 children over a 15-year period. The children were ages 1 month to 16 years (mean age at onset was 5.5 years) when they were diagnosed with epilepsy. They were followed for five years and contacted again 10 years later.

By the end of the study, 70.9 percent (293) of the participants had been in remission for at least five years, while 30 percent still had active epilepsy that became intractable in one out of 10 of them. The majority of patients in remission had been diagnosed with epilepsy of unknown origin, also known as idiopathic epilepsy.

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New Light Shed on Epilepsy

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2009) — Pioneering research using human brain tissue removed from people suffering from epilepsy has opened the door to new treatments for the disease.

Scientists at Newcastle University have for the first time been able to record spontaneous epileptic activity in brain tissue that has been removed from patients undergoing neurosurgery.

Led by Newcastle University's Dr Mark Cunningham, the research has revealed that a particular type of brain wave pattern associated with epilepsy is caused by electrical connections between nerve cells in the brain -- rather than chemical ones. This means the traditional drugs are useless to them.

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Discovery of New Function of Prion Protein Improves Understanding of Epilepsy

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2009) — Cellular prion protein (PrPc) plays an essential role in maintaining neurotransmitter homeostasis in the central nervous system. This discovery has been made possible by the observation that both a deficiency and an excess of the protein have a considerable effect on this homeostasis. Surprisingly, in both cases, the central nervous excitability threshold is altered to such an extent that an epileptic seizure may result. Thanks to this discovery, we now have more tools at our disposal that can help us to deepen our basic understanding of epilepsy.

The discovery, carried out by researchers of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the University of Barcelona (UB), led by José Antonio Del Río, with the collaboration of researchers at Pablo de Olavide University and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture Technology Research, was presented in a study published in PLoS ONE.

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Certain Colors More Likely To Cause Epileptic Fits, Researchers Find

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2009) — Researchers have discovered that epileptic brains are more ordered than non-epileptic ones and also that certain flicking colors seem more likely to cause fits.

In 1997, more than seven hundred children in Japan reportedly suffered an epileptic attack while watching an episode of a popular cartoon. This was later diagnosed as a case of photosensitive epilepsy (a kind of epilepsy caused by visual stimulus) triggered by a specific segment of the cartoon containing a colorful flickering stimulus. Recently in 2007, the animated video footage promoting the 2012 London Olympics faced similar complaint from some viewers.

Because of the widespread usages of television and video games, it is important to detect the crucial visual parameters in triggering an epileptic attack. Common guidelines are available on specific visual parameters of the stimuli like spatial/temporal frequency, stimulus contrast, patterns etc. However, despite the ubiquitous presence of colorful displays and materials, very little is known about the relationship between color-combinations (chromaticity) and photosensitivity. Further it is also not precisely known how the patients' brain responses differ from healthy brains against such colorful stimuli.

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Explanation for Rapid Maturation of Neurons at Birth

(Credit: Image courtesy of Duke University Medical Center)

ScienceDaily (Nov. 20, 2009) — At the moment a newborn switches from amniotic fluid to breathing air, another profound shift occurs: nerve cells in the brain convert from hyperexcitability to a calm frame against which outside signals can be detected.

"Fetal neurons need hyperexcitability for proper development, because they are moving to the right places (in the brain) and forming the right connections," said Wolfgang Liedtke, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor at the Duke Center for Translational Neuroscience and Klingenstein Fellow in Neuroscience. "But at birth, the brain has to undergo a developmental shift."

It does this by controlling a "pump" that drains chloride out of newborn neurons, making these highly chaotic, developing cells quiet down. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have figured out the genetic control of the pump in rodents.

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Epilepsy Halted In Mice

ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2009) — Scientists at Leeds have prevented epilepsy caused by a gene defect from being passed on to mice offspring – an achievement which may herald new therapies for people suffering from the condition.

The study is published August 3 in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It offers, for the first time, irrefutable proof that a faulty version of a gene known as Atp1a3 is responsible for causing epileptic seizures in mice.

Says lead researcher Dr Steve Clapcote, of the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences: "Atp1a3 makes an enzyme called a sodium-potassium pump that regulates levels of sodium and potassium in the brain's nerve cells. An imbalance of sodium and potassium levels has long been suspected to lead to epileptic seizures, but our study is the first to show beyond any doubt that a defect in this gene is responsible."

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Epilepsy: Seizures Caused By Intractable Epilepsy Reduced By More Than 50 Percent

ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2009) — Epilepsy is a common medical condition characterized by convulsions and short periods of confusion. It affects more than 50 million people worldwide. But intractable epilepsy, which affects more than 1 million Americans and is often resistant to drug treatment and surgery, is arguably worse.

But in a just completed clinical trial, a unique nerve-stimulation treatment for intractable epilepsy reduced the number of seizures by more than 50 percent. In the March edition of the journal Neurology, UCLA neurology professor Christopher M. DeGiorgio and colleagues report the results of the long-term pilot trial, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the new treatment, called trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS).

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Seizure Meds Can Be Safely Withdrawn From Kids With Epilepsy

MONDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- It's generally safe to stop giving anti-seizure medication to children with epilepsy who've achieved seizure-freedom while on the medication, because these children aren't at high risk of later developing intractable epilepsy, a Mayo Clinic study finds.

Intractable epilepsy, which affects about 10 percent of children with epilepsy, is a condition in which medications alone don't control seizures and in which seizures have a disabling effect on the patient's quality of life.

"It is often recommended that children with epilepsy who become seizure-free on anti-seizure medications be withdrawn from the drugs to avoid side effects of long-term use. Those potential side effects include cognitive slowing, incoordination, weight change, behavioral decline, and liver damage," pediatric neurologist Dr. Katherine Nickels said in a Mayo news release. "However, few previous studies had examined the risk of intractable epilepsy following withdrawal of anti-seizure medication, and the reported risks varied widely."

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Gene Associated With Epilepsy Discovered

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2008) — A University of Iowa-led international research team has found a new gene associated with the brain disorder epilepsy. While the PRICKLE1 gene mutation was specific to a rare form of epilepsy, the study results could help lead to new ideas for overall epilepsy treatment.

The findings, which involved nearly two dozen institutions from six different countries, appear in the Nov. 7 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

In epilepsy, nerve cells in the brain signal abnormally and cause repeated seizures that can include strange sensations, severe muscle spasms and loss of consciousness. The seizures may not have lasting effects but can affect activities, such as limiting a person's ability to drive. Most seizures do not cause brain damage but some types of epilepsy lead to physical disabilities and cognitive problems. Medications can control symptoms, but there is no cure.

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How Epilepsy Develops: New Relationship Between Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Inflammatory Signaling

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2008) — In the October 14th edition of Science Signaling researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia/University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine have shown that the development of epilepsy in adult rats is linked to functional changes in the expression of alpha 1 containing GABA-A receptors, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter receptor in the brain, that may be dependent upon BDNF-induced activation of the Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) pathway.

Activation of the JAK/STAT pathway has previously been shown to be dependent upon cytokines and is implicated in a large number of inflammatory diseases

The multiple subunits of the GABA-A receptor show developmental and region specific expression in the brain and produce a diverse set of functional receptor isoforms. Drs. Shelley Russek, a molecular neuroscientist/pharmacologist from Boston University School of Medicine and Dr. Amy Brooks-Kayal, a pediatric neurologist researcher from the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, believe that changes in inhibitory receptors in a portion of the brain known as the dentate gyrus may be crtically important to the development of temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common type of epilepsy in children and adults. Decrease of GABA-A receptors containing alpha 1 subunits at the synapse, and increase of receptors containing alpha 4, has been associated with spontaneous seizures.

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Rare Genetic Disorder Gives Clues to Autism, Epilepsy, Mental Retardation

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2008) — A rare genetic disorder called tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is yielding insight into a possible cause of some neurodevelopmental disorders: structural abnormalities in neurons, or brain cells. Researchers in the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Children's Hospital Boston, led by Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD, and Xi He, PhD, also found that normal neuronal structure can potentially be restored.

If this could be done safely in humans, it might be possible to ameliorate the symptoms of epilepsy, mental retardation and autism, which are frequent complications of TSC, say the researchers.

TSC causes benign tumor-like lesions, which can affect every organ in the body and are called tubers when they occur in the brain. In the study, Sahin, He, lead author Yong-Jin Choi, PhD, and colleagues show in mice that when the two genes linked to the disease, TSC1 and TSC2, are inactivated, neurons grow too many axons (the long nerve fibers that transmit signals). Normal neurons grow just one axon and multiple dendrites (short projections that receive input from other neurons). This specification of axons and dendrites, known as polarity, is crucial for proper information flow.

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Brain Study May Lead to Improved Epilepsy Treatments

ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2008) — Using a rodent model of epilepsy, researchers found one of the body's own neurotransmitters released during seizures, glutamate, turns on a signaling pathway in the brain that increases production of a protein that could reduce medication entry into the brain. Researchers say this may explain why approximately 30 percent of patients with epilepsy do not respond to antiepileptic medications.

The study was conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and Medical School, in collaboration with Heidrun Potschka's laboratory at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany.

"Our work identifies the mechanism by which seizures increase production of a drug transport protein in the blood brain barrier, known as P-glycoprotein, and suggests new therapeutic targets that could reduce resistance," said David Miller, Ph.D., a principal investigator in the NIEHS Laboratory of Pharmacology and co-author on the paper.

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Boom in camps for chronically ill kids

WASHINGTON - Summer camps just for kids with chronic diseases are booming — places to learn about epilepsy or finally meet someone else with Tourette's tics or slice open a cow's heart to see what's wrong with their own.

Now fledgling research suggests such special camps may offer more than a rite of passage these children otherwise would miss: They just might have a lasting therapeutic value.

It's work that helps explain why children's hospitals increasingly are sponsoring disease-specific summer camps. One in the nation's capital actually integrated the camps into the neurology department.

"How do you live well with a chronic condition? I believe in part, the power of being amongst your peers normalizes the experience," explains Sandra Cushner-Weinstein, a social worker at Children's National Medical Center who founded the hospital's weeklong camps for five illnesses, and is studying the impact on campers

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Impaired Fetal Growth Linked With Epilepsy Risk

"NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Infants with impaired growth in the womb, indicated by low birth weight or birth before full term, appear to have an increased risk of epilepsy in early childhood, according to a new study.

Conflicting findings have been reported regarding the relationship between epilepsy and birth weight or gestational age, Dr. Yuelian Sun, of the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and colleagues note in the American Journal of Epidemiology."

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Epilepsy Genes May Cancel Each Other

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2007)— "Inheriting two genetic mutations that can individually cause epilepsy might actually be 'seizure-protective,' said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report that appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

'In the genetics of the brain, two wrongs can make a right,' said Dr. Jeffrey L. Noebels, professor of neurology, neuroscience and molecular and human genetics at BCM. 'We believe these findings have great significance to clinicians as we move toward relying upon genes to predict neurological disease.'

In addition, the finding might point the way to new ways of treating epilepsy using gene-directed therapy."

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Epilepsy-induced Brain Cell Damage Prevented in the Laboratory

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2007) — "For some epilepsy patients, the side effects of epilepsy can be as troubling as the seizures. One pressing concern is the cognitive impairment seizures often inflict, which potentially includes memory loss, slowed reactions and reduced attention spans.

Now scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have directly observed seizure-induced structural changes in brain cells in laboratory animals. They report in The Journal of Neuroscience that the insights they gained allowed them to use a drug to block those changes in the brain.

'Assuming that these structural changes are linked to cognitive impairment -- and there's a lot of data to suggest that's true -- then this could provide us with a path to therapies that reduce cognitive problems in epilepsy,' says senior author Michael Wong, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology, of anatomy and neurobiology, and of pediatrics."

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