And like what physically happens in the brain to cause it?
In: Biology
Your brain runs on electricity. Normally, that electricity operates in a certain way.
When someone’s brain has abnormal changes in how its electricity operates, we call it epilepsy.
But epilepsy isn’t one condition. It’s a bucket term used for a whole group of related conditions. So it has no one cause.
When you think of epilepsy, you are likely thinking of what are commonly called grand mal seizures, which are one of many types of seizures. Even that term is outdated and inaccurate. These seizures also have no one cause. They are characterized by abnormal, excessive, and synchronized electrical discharge in the brain, the source of that discharge could be a brain injury, a brain tumor, an underlying genetic condition, or several other causes as well.
So to recap:
– epilepsy isn’t one thing
– the thing people most commonly think of as epilepsy is just one tiny slice of it
– that tiny slice has no one cause
Source: I have epileptic seizures in my temporal lobe and frontal lobe, as a by product of some brain surgeries I had back in 2008.
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