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I'm a journalist writing a story about some novel new epilepsy research. Would it be all right to post some questions about it to this forum?
Mike
Mike
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Mike said:Here's some information, including links to the paper and questions. Thanks!
BACKGROUND
Comparing "the Earth's crust and the epileptic brain," an international research team claims a "robust correspondence" between seizures and earthquakes.
Epileptic seizures -- "paroxysmal increases in the amplitude or rhythmicity of neuronal oscillations" -- resemble earthquakes, which similarly "manifest
as sudden, aperiodic, potentially damaging scillations." Both phenomena are also "relaxation events," in which energy accumulated over a relatively long period -- decades or centuries for earthquakes; days or weeks for epilepsy, discharges over short burst -- usually just a few seconds.
Studying seven mathematical similarities, the research team discovered that the so-called Omori Laws governing earthquakes may also describe the gradual peaking and reduction of seizure intensity. Epilepsy and earthquakes also share certain "power laws," mathematical relationships that stay the same even in systems of vastly different size and energy.
CHALLENGING THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
Calling it a "universally accepted practice," the researchers say that neurologists wrongly use both intensity and duration of abnormal neuronal activity as diagnostic of epilepsy.
For the same reasons seismologists do not use intensity and duration to classify whether or not seismic activity is an earthquake, "these quantities should not be used as criteria to classify certain neuronal activity as either seizure or non-seizure," the researchers claim.
The conventional wisdom also holds that a seizure can be termed "typical." But that's wrong, too. Just as there is no such thing as a typical earthquake, there's no such thing as a typical epileptic seizure, the researchers say. "Variability" is the dominant trait of both phenomena.
THE OMORI LAW AS A PREDICTIVE TOOL
The so-called Omori Law that governs seismic activity also applies to seizure activity, the researchers say, suggesting a predictive mechanism.
Simply put, the Omori Law states that "earthquakes beget more earthquakes."
Short, imperceptible, abnormal seismic bursts (mini-earthquakes less than 2.0 on the Richter scale) help trigger and therefore precede big earthquakes. Seismologists pick up these short bursts on a seismograph, but we don't feel them.
"In seismology, it has been recognized that small, undetected earthquakes provide a major if not dominant contribution to the triggering future of earthquakes of any size," the researchers write.
Using this analogy, short bursts of abnormal brain electrical activity unperceived by the epileptic patient or clinician but detected on an EEG -- which the researchers call "a neurological seismograph" -- should also trigger and precede future seizures of any size. Their findings suggest support this idea.
THE POWER LAW AS A PREDICTIVE TOOL
A second mathematical law that describes earthquake activity -- the power law -- also governs seizures, the researchers say, providing yet another predictive tool.
A power law says that "the longer it has been since the last event, the longer you can expect to wait for the next event."
If it took a day for the train to get to the station, the next train should come in about another day. If it took five hours for the train to get to the station, the next train should come in about five hours.
The researchers show, with mathematical results they graph, that this same idea holds for both earthquakes and seizures.
CONCLUSIONS
"The totality of our findings justifies a novel approach to forecasting seizures that encompasses not only their intrinsic triggering capacity, but expands the set of monitored observables, from clinical seizures to all types of epileptiform activity (subclinical seizures and other related paroxysmal oscillations)," they write.
By identifying what they term a "universal dynamics for systems as diverse as Earth and brain," the researchers presage "a general strategy for forecasting seizures, one of neurosciences' grails."
PAPER
Epileptic Seizures: Quakes of the brain?
http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.3929
Paper in PDF format:
http://xxx.arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0712/0712.3929.pdf
LEAD RESEARCHERS
Ivan Osorio, MD
http://www2.kumc.edu/neurology/osorio.html
Didier Sornette, Ph.D.
http://www.ess.ucla.edu/faculty/sornette/
RELATED STORIES
Earthquakes may hold clues for treatment of epilepsy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jan/10/neuroscience.medicalresearch
Brain 'seismology' helps predict epileptic attacks
http://www.newscientist.com/article...ismology-helps-predict-epileptic-attacks.html
QUESTIONS
1) What is your opinion of the research paper's basic points?
2) Do you believe the research challenges the status quo about epilepsy? Does it do so effectively or unconvincingly and why?
3) Why are seizures hard to predict? Could a way to monitor so-called "subclinical seizures" offer a way to predict them, if the conclusions here pan out?
4) Would clinicians find this research helpful? Would you find this research helpful?
5) Any other comments?
6) What is your official title and position?
Best,
Michael J. Martin, M.S., M.B.A
Science and Technology Writer and Editor
Member: National Association of Science Writers (www.nasw.org)
National Press Club (www.press.org)