Contrary to long-held assumptions, researchers find that some seizures start after a burst from neurons that inhibit brain activity.
Some patients describe epileptic seizures like an earthquake from within, starting slow and growing without their control. To a brain researcher, seizures are an electrical firestorm of neuronal activation in the brain. Now, studies at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), have shown that some types of seizure paradoxically begin with a hush: a spike in inhibition. Neurons that dampen neuronal activity may be responsible for starting the large-scale over-activation of a seizure.
“This is the first time to our knowledge that this phenomenon of inhibition at the start of a seizure has been observed in humans,” said senior author Shennan Weiss, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology and Head of Thomas Jefferson Computational Epilepsy Laboratory at the Vickie & Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience at Jefferson. “Such a shift in our thinking could change how we go about looking for new treatments for preventing epileptic seizures,” said Dr. Weiss, who also treats patients with the disease.
Click here to read more.