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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.
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.
A recent study has shown that cognitive impairment is evident early on in preschool children with epilepsy, which is consistent with results of similar studies in older children. Age of onset of first seizure is a significant predictor of cognitive impairment according to this study — the first to evaluate cognitive impairment in children age three to six.
Epilepsy is a disorder of recurrent unprovoked seizures that affects 325,000 children younger than 15 years in the United States. An examination of medication adherence among children with newly diagnosed epilepsy found that nearly 60 percent showed persistent nonadherence during the first 6 months of therapy, and that lower socioeconomic status was associated with higher non-adherence according to a study in the April 27 issue of JAMA.
A new study found that treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE) is common in idiopathic autism. Early age at the onset of seizures and delayed global development were associated with a higher frequency of resistance to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Full findings appear online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE).
A new drug called perampanel appears to significantly reduce seizures in people with hard-to-control epilepsy, according to results of the first clinical trial to test the higher 12 mg dose of the drug. The late-breaking research will be presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Most professionals and researchers in the field of neurofeedback are familiar with the now classic neurofeedback study by Barry Sterman entitled, “Electroencephalographic and Behavioral Studies of Monomethyl Hydrazine Toxicity in the Cat.” This is perhaps one of, or the most, important studies to be conducted in neurofeedback. The Journal of Neurotherapy has made this important study available for all. Check the end of this report for a free download link for full-text access.
Like listeners adjusting a high-tech radio, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have tuned in to precise frequencies of brain activity to unleash new insights into how the brain works. The results appeared in December in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
