• Question: During an epileptic fit, what happens in the brain?

    Asked by hazellwh to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Jenni Tilley

      Jenni Tilley answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      the electrical signals in the brain don’t work properly. Essentially the signalling is interupted in some way – too many are transmitted, and they’re transmitted in an odd way.

      Ceck out some of these images of brain scans to see what I mean:
      http://www.healthline.com/galeimage?contentId=gend_01_00142&id=gend_01_img0048

    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Epileptic seizures start in the brain. Our brain controls the way we think, move and feel, by passing electrical messages from one brain cell to another, and epileptic seizures occur when these messages are disrupted. What happens to the person during the seizure depends on where in the brain this disrupted activity happens. There are different types of seizure:

      Generalised seizures usually cause a total loss of consciousness, and happen when there is too much electrical activity over a very wide area of the brain.
      When partial seizures happen the person can often still be conscious, although might have some changes to how they see or hear. These seizures happen when there is too much electrical activity in a just a small area of the brain

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