A team of physicists, physicians, and neuroscientists at the Bernstein Center of the University Freiburg completed a step forward toward the ambitious goal of predicting epileptic seizures. The findings were published in the latest issue of the journal “Epilepsia.” ...

New research from Rhode Island Hospital found that reduced levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein in the brain that encourages growth of neurons, may be a trait marker for individuals with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) (seizures that are psychological in origin). The findings are published in the October 4, 2010, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Acad ...

Soldiers who receive traumatic brain injuries during war may be at a higher risk of epilepsy even decades after the brain injury occurred. The new research is published in the July 20, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Post-traumatic epilepsy is the most common cause of new-onset epilepsy in young adults with nearly 30,000 new cases per year in the Un ...

In a soon-to-be published meta-analytic study*, researchers report that neurofeedback benefits people with treatment refractory (resistant) epilepsy. The authors' review of current research revealed that almost 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, or 0.8% of the general population, and that approximately 33% of patients with this unfortunate medical condition do not benefit from traditional medical tr ...

The September 23rd edition of The Scientist Research News Update brings about news and research from a wide range of topics. These include that Nature (Journal) will launch an open access journal, the NIH calls for risky research to push the envelope of knowledge, a highly regarded epilepsy paper is retracted to due researcher errors, the Y chromosome may cause sex disorders, prostate cancer may have a vira ...

There has been increasing interest of late in very slow electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. While this sort of activity has been recorded and studied for many years, and used in biofeedback protocols in several applications, it is only recently gaining popularity as another tool with potential mainstream application to clinical neurofeedback. Whatever the tool, before embarking on a new clinical path, a ...