Summary: Most neurons displayed decreased activity during Absence seizures. This, according to researchers, accounts for the decline in brain activity and compromised consciousness thttps://nzhealthcare.online/hat occurs during an Absence Epilepsy seizure.

Citation: Yale

Imagine losing consciousness hundreds of times per day, remaining awake the entire time, but being completely unaware of what is happening.

These extremely upsetting events are called absence seizures in kids with absence epilepsy. Children occasionally go through brief periods of unconsciousness while staring spells. Although aberrant rhythms on EEG recordings can be seen during absence seizures, their neuronal origin has never been determined.

Yale researchers have discovered the neural underpinnings for this illness using a genetic model known as Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats of Strasbourg (GAERS).

Their conclusions were
on January 10 in Nature Communications.

According to the senior author Dr. Hal Blumenfeld, professor of neuroscience and neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine and Mark Loughridge and Michele Williams Professor of Neurology, “first, we studied behaviour during seizures using an auditory response task and a spontaneous motivated licking liquid reward task.”

“Then, to map the brain activity during seizures, we photographed the rats using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Finally, we used multi-contact silicon probes to record electrical impulses from individual neurons as well as electrical signals from the brain using EEG.

Cian McCafferty, who at the time was a postdoctoral researcher at Yale and is currently a lecturer and lead investigator at University College Cork, oversaw the tests. As the researchers discovered, not only do
According to Blumenfeld, the majority of neurons displayed prolonged declines in activity during seizures, which explains the diminished brain activity and poorer consciousness observed during absehttps://nzhealthcare.online/nce seizures in both rats and children.

However, certain neurons exhibited continuous increases during convulsions, while others exhibited transitory spikes only at seizure initiation.

By specifically targeting a certain type of neuron and creating fewer side effects, the identification of four distinct types of neuronal activity may enable more individualised treatment for children with absence epilepsy.

The recordings of electrical brain signals from this study, according to Blumenfeld, may be most crucial in helping epilepsy specialists manage patients and prevent seizures from starting in the first place.

After completing this groundbreaking research usinghttps://nzhealthcare.online/ a rat model, Blumenfeld and his team are hoping that kids will benefit.