Why do people get seizures from blinking lights?

Question

Why do people get seizures from blinking lights?

In: 4

Answer 1

When neurons fire, it’s usually part of a network. In this network sometimes there’s a loop where they are activated more and more each time the loop repeats. So with a light, the the loop gets activated. There’s another part that acts like a traffic controller and makes sure the loop doesn’t get too excited.

So for normal people, when the light goes on, the loop gets activated, and it turns of when the light goes off. In epilepsy, the traffic controllers can’t really do their job well and so the loop doesn’t get turned off/doesn’t get turned off quickly enough.

Now comes the important part. One loop can cause other loops to get activated and so on and so forth. Now imagine what happens when the traffic controllers can’t control that. EVERYTHING starts getting activated and this results in the seizures.