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Most cases of autism are not caused by a single genetic mutation. However, several disorders with autism-like symptoms, including the rare Fragile X syndrome, can be traced to a specific mutation. Several years ago, MIT neuroscientist Mark Bear discovered that this mutation leads to overproduction of proteins found in brain synapses — the connections between neurons that allow them to communicate with each other.
Epilepsy is common in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A new study indicates their epilepsy is surprisingly photosensitive as well. Since photosensitive epilepsies can be triggered by flickering lights, the self-stimulatory behavior of ASD children, such as hand flapping in front of the face, has the potential to dramatically increase the risk of inducing photosensitive seizures.
Research presented today at the American Epilepsy Society’s 65th annual meeting suggests that systematic screening for developmental delay (DD) and autism should be routine for all children seen in epilepsy clinics. Investigators at Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, evaluated the potential of giving screening questionnaires to parents of pediatric epilepsy patients seen in an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) and a ketogenic diet clinic.
Certain visual patterns and flashing images can provoke seizures in susceptible individuals, particularly among children and adolescents. Some media reports on the recent introduction of 3D-television sets suggest that this new technology may cause seizures in some viewers. Children who have epilepsy are somewhat more vulnerable to the provocative stimuli than their peers. But there has been no systematic examination of the potential effects 3D-TV may have on patients with epilepsy.
A team of researchers co-led by the University of Pennsylvania has developed and tested a new high-resolution, ultra-thin device capable of recording brain activity from the cortical surface without having to use penetrating electrodes. The device could make possible a whole new generation of brain-computer interfaces for treating neurological and psychiatric illness and research. The work was published in Nature Neuroscience.
Being born prematurely may increase your risk of developing epilepsy as an adult, according to a new study published in the October 4, 2011, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham pinpoints the relationship between primary brain tumors and the onset of epileptic seizures and reveals that a drug used to treat Crohn’s disease inhibits those seizures and may be able to slow a tumor’s growth. The onset of seizures is a common symptom in gliomas and often is the first sign of a brain tumor. Sen. Ted Kennedy had a seizure in May 2008, and three days later doctors confirmed that he had a malignant glioma. Kennedy died the following year.
An existing anti-seizure drug improves memory and brain function in adults with a form of cognitive impairment that often leads to full-blown Alzheimer’s disease, a Johns Hopkins University study has found. The findings raise the possibility that doctors will someday be able to use the drug, levetiracetam, already approved for use in epilepsy patients, to slow the abnormal loss of brain function in some aging patients before their condition becomes Alzheimer’s disease.
Almost everyone has experienced one memory triggering another, but explanations for that phenomenon have proved elusive. Now, University of Pennsylvania researchers have provided the first neurobiological evidence that memories formed in the same context become linked – the foundation of the theory of episodic memory. The details were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that a clinical trial of the epilepsy drug gabapentin may have been a “seeding trial” used by a pharmaceutical company to promote the drug and increase prescriptions, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. As described in the study by Yale assistant professor of medicine Joseph Ross, M.D., and his colleagues, a seeding trial is a clinical trial conducted primarily for marketing purposes and intended to promote the drug and increase prescribing by exposing physician-investigators to it.
