On a sudden in the midst of men and day,
And while I walk’d and talk’d as heretofore,
I seem’d to move among a world of ghosts,
And feel myself the shadow of a dream.
Our great court-Galen poised his gilt-head cane,
And paw’d his beard, and mutter’d ‘catalepsy’
- Alfred Lord Tennyson
A patient suffering an epileptic seizure might exhibit few symptoms. Most often children, the victims might suddenly stop what they’re doing and stare blankly, unaware that the seizure is happening beyond a sense that they have lost time once the event is over. Patients sometimes describe the sensation as a series of brief electrical shocks.
To an observer, the event can seem violent and horrifying, and to the victim, it’s as if parts of the mind were wiped clean or transposed entirely.
Caused by complex chemical changes tearing across nerve cells, some brain cells are either excited or inhibited from their business of sending messages. Of the six types of generalized seizures, the most dramatic is a convulsion known as a “grand-mal” event. Loss of consciousness and collapse, a stiffening of the body for up to a minute and then, the violent jerking of the clonic phase – often up to a full minute long – might end in injury, tongue biting and incontinence.
The treatment for the condition can seem mortifying as well. It commonly involves drilling straight through the skull to reach the brain and the tiny site inside responsible for the problem.
Now a team of engineers at Vanderbilt University think they’ve found a better way. They believe they’ve built a robotic device which can reach the hippocampus located at the base of the brain by operating through a patient’s cheek to avoid disrupting the skull. …
