Researchers studying a common form of epilepsy have made an important discovery about a process within the brain’s hippocampus that appears to modulate seizure activity and suggests a possible new target for future therapies.
In epilepsy, according to the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the normal pattern of neuronal activity in the brain becomes disturbed, giving rise to unusual sensations, emotions, and behavior, or sometimes convulsions, muscle spasms, and loss of consciousness. Sixty percent of epileptic seizures are convulsive, and involve involuntary muscle contractions which can be incapacitating.
