Table of Contents
What does the brain do during a seizure?
During a seizure, there is a sudden intense burst of electricity that disrupts how the brain usually works. This activity can happen on one small part of the brain and last for just a couple of seconds, or it can spread right across the brain and keep going for many minutes.
What part of the brain causes seizures in adults?
The occipital lobe is the site of the brain’s visual system. Occipital lobe seizures account for 5 percent of all seizures experienced by people with epilepsy. There may be no known cause of this type of seizure, or a person may be found to have a lesion, or injured area, in the occipital lobe.
What in the brain causes epilepsy?
Lying in the middle of the brain is part of the temporal lobe called the hippocampus. This part of the brain is involved in learning and in forming memories. If the hippocampus is damaged, it can cause epilepsy in some people.
What part of the nervous system is affected by epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system, which sends messages to and from the brain and spinal cord to direct the body’s activities. Disruptions in electrical activity in the central nervous system set off seizures.
What brain seizures feel like?
You may have tremors (shaking movements), twitching or jerking movements that you can’t control. This could happen on one or both sides of your face, arms, legs or your whole body. It could start in one area and then spread to other areas, or it could stay in one place.
What are the warning signs of epilepsy?
Epilepsy: Seizure Triggers, Warning Signs, and Symptoms
- Temporary confusion—often described as a “fuzzy” feeling.
- A staring spell.
- Uncontrollable jerking movements of the arms and legs.
- Loss of consciousness or awareness.
- Psychic symptoms—out-of-body feelings or not feeling “in the moment”
- Memory lapses.
How do seizures effect the brain?
Recurrent seizures in the developing human brain is associated with adverse and widespread impairments of the growth and development of both the structure and the function of the brain. Besides killing cells, epileptic seizures adversely alter brain function in other ways as well.
What happens to the brain after a seizure?
A number of experimental studies indicate that seizures can cause brain damage. Seizures are clearly capable of injuring the brain and are likely to cause negative changes in brain function. They may also result in the loss of specific brain cells.
What happens in the brain during a seizure?
A seizure is a sudden change in the brain’s normal electrical activity. During a seizure, brain cells “fire” uncontrollably at up to four times their normal rate, temporarily affecting the way a person behaves, moves, thinks or feels.
What are the long term effects of seizures?
Long-term side effects of seizures include: head injuries. choking causing throat damage, extended loss of consciousness, or death. temporary or permanent brain damage. broken bones.