http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—The smooth operation of the brain requires a certain robustness to fluctuations in its home within the body. At the same time, its extraordinary power derives from an activity structure poised at criticality. In other words, it is highly responsive to many low-threshold events. When forced beyond its comfort zone in parameter space—its operating temperature, electrolytes, sugars, blood gas or even sensory input— the direct result is seizure, coma, or both. It would appear that anything rendered too hot or cold, too concentrated or scarce, precipitates seizure. In those genetically predisposed, or compromised by head trauma, the seizing tends toward full-blown epilepsy. A group in Hamburg, led by Michael Frotscher has been chipping away at the causes of common form a epilepsy, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Their latest research published in the journal, Cerebral Cortex, takes a closer at differentiated neurons in the dentate gryus of mouse hippocampus. Once thought to be completely immobilized by virtue of their broadly integrated dendritic trees, these neurons are now shown to become migratory once again in direct response to seizure activity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-epilepsy-differentiated-neurons.html Neuroscience Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:40:19 EST news283779586 In a promising finding for epileptic patients suffering from persistent seizures known as status epilepticus, researchers reported today that new medication could help halt these devastating seizures. To do so, it would have to work directly to antagonize NMDA receptors, the predominant molecular device for controlling synaptic activity and memory function in the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-therapies-persistent-seizures-epileptic-patients.html Neuroscience Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:04:46 EST news277563845 (Medical Xpress)—Mild cooling of the brain after a head injury prevents the later development of epileptic seizures, according to an animal study reported this month in the  Annals of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-mild-brain-cooling-injury-epileptic.html Neuroscience Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:50:02 EST news275298594 With the help of data collected from intracranial electrodes implanted on epilepsy patients, researchers in Drexel's School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems are getting a rare look inside the brain in hopes of discovering the exact pattern of activity that produces a memory. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-memories-explore-anatomy-recollection.html Neuroscience Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:14:40 EST news271602863 New research by scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine may have pinpointed an underlying cause of the seizures that affect 90 percent of people with Angelman syndrome (AS), a neurodevelopmental disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-brain-cell-imbalance-account-seizure.html Neuroscience Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:10:01 EST news258215785 New research focusing on high-frequency oscillations, termed ripples and fast ripples, recorded by intracranial electroencephalography (EEG), may provide an important marker for the localization of the brain region responsible for seizure activity. According to the study now available in Epilepsia, a journal of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), the resection of brain regions containing fast ripples, along with the visually-identified seizure-onset zone, may achieve a good seizure outcome in pediatric epilepsy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-fast-ripples-valuable-biomarker-area.html Medical research Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:29:32 EST news231128959