Human Brain Mapping - Seizures

Seizures

• Epileptic seizure (Common term, a fit) - a transient symptom of abnormal excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain. The outward effect can be as dramatic as a wild thrashing movement (tonic-clonic seizure) or as mild as a brief loss of awareness. It can manifest as an alteration in mental state, tonic or clonic movements, convulsions, and various other psychic symptoms (such as déjà vu or jamais vu). Sometimes it is not accompanied by convulsions but a full body "slump", where the person simply will lose body control and slump to the ground. About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy. Onset of new cases occurs most frequently in infants and the elderly. As a consequence of brain surgery, epileptic seizures may occur in recovering patients. See also Epilepsy and in particular the surgery section for details on specific brain regions associated with epilepsy.
• See also Orgasm which has been studied with fMRI