Lauren Furlong
Physiological Psychology
March 26th, 2015
Epilepsy
Your brain is the control center of your body. The brain is part of the neurological system, a complex system consisting of the spinal chord and a vast network of nerves and neurons that control and implement the functions you do everyday. Brain disorders occur when your brain is damaged by disease, health conditions, or injury. Brain disorders could be many different things such as tumors, degenerative diseases, mental health conditions, or brain injuries. Symptoms of brain disorders differentiate depending on what caused the condition. Brain disorders could affect various main areas of your brain that control how you move, think, and behave. Some common symptoms could be confusion or problems concentrating, headaches, seizures, memory loss, changes in normal behavior, vision problems, loss of muscle control, and vomiting or nausea. Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain sometimes signal abnormally causing strange sensations. Neurons normally generate electrochemical impulses that act on other neurons, glands, and muscles to produce human thoughts, feelings, and actions. In epilepsy, the normal pattern of neuronal activity becomes disturbed, causing strange sensations, emotions, and behavior, or sometimes convulsions, muscle spasms, and loss of consciousness. During a seizure, neurons may fire as many as 500 times a second, much faster than normal. In some people, this happens only occasionally; for others, it may happen up to hundreds of times a day. Epilepsy is not contagious and is not caused by mental illness or mental retardation. Sometimes severe seizures can cause brain damage, but most seizures do not seem to have a detrimental effect on the brain. Epilepsy has many possible causes, from illness to brain damage to abnormal brain development. Genetics may also play a role. Epilepsy can also develop as a result of brain damage from other disorders including brain tumors, alcoholism, Alzheimer's disease, strokes, and heart attacks. Epilepsy is also associated with a variety of developmental and metabolic disorders. Other causes include head injury, prenatal injury, and poisoning. Triggers for seizures include lack of sleep, alcohol consumption, stress, or hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle. There are many types of seizures, divided into two major categories: focal seizures and generalized seizures. Focal seizure symptoms include unusual feelings or sensations that can take many forms, such as sudden and unexplainable emotions, nausea, or hallucinations. Generalized seizure symptoms may cause loss of consciousness, falls, or massive muscle spasms. Seizures themselves are not necessarily epilepsy; there are many different kinds of epilepsy syndromes, which are frequently described by their symptoms or by where in the brain they originate. Each has its own characteristic set of symptoms, there are many different ways to treat epilepsy including medications, surgery to treat the epilepsy or to treat underlying conditions, implanted devices, and diet. Most people with epilepsy lead full, active lives, but they are at risk for two life-threatening conditions: status epilepticcus (when a person has an abnormally prolonged seizure or does not fully regain consciousness between seizures), and sudden unexplained death. Epilepsy may develop because of an abnormality in brain wiring, an imbalance of nerve signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters, or some combination of these factors. Researchers believe that some people with epilepsy have an abnormally high level of excitatory neurotransmitters that increase neuronal activity, while others have an abnormally low level of inhibitory neurotransmitters that decrease neuronal activity in the brain. Either situation can result in too much neuronal activity and cause epilepsy. One of the most-studied neurotransmitters that plays a role in