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Applications of Intelligent Control to Engineering Systems pp 225–245Cite as

Epileptic Seizures May Begin Hours in Advance of Clinical Onset: A Report of Five Patients*

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Part of the book series: Intelligent Systems, Control, and Automation: Science and Engineering ((ISCA,volume 39))

Research into mechanisms underlying seizure generation has traditionally focused on the seconds to at most few minutes before clinical seizure onset. In search of seizure predictors over longer periods of time, we analyzed continuous three to fourteen day EEG recordings from five consecutive patients with temporal lobe epilepsy implanted intracranially, with electrodes in and on the surface of the temporal lobes, during evaluation for epilepsy surgery. We found reliable, localized quantitative EEG changes, including increases in signal energy and brief bursts of rhythmic electrical discharges, indicating that epileptic seizures begin as a cascade of electrophysiological events that evolve over hours. Two important implications of these findings are: (1) neuroscientists investigating seizure generation must now focus on much longer time periods than were previously thought to be important to this process; and (2) an understanding of seizure precursors can be used to create implantable devices to forecast seizures and trigger intervention to prevent their electrical and clinical onset.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology & Bioengineering, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Brian Litt & Marc Dichter

  2. School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, 30332–0250, USA

    Rosana Esteller, Maryann D'Alessandro, Rachel Shor & George Vachtsevanos

  3. Departamento Tecnología Industrial, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, 89000, Venezuela

    Rosana Esteller

  4. Senior Research Scientist and President, JE Research, Inc., Alpharetta, GA, USA

    Javier Echauz

  5. Army Research Labs, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Maryann D'Alessandro

  6. Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Thomas Henry, Page Pennell, Charles Epstein & Roy Bakay

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  1. Brian Litt
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO, 80208, USA

    Kimon P. Valavanis

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Litt, B. et al. (2009). Epileptic Seizures May Begin Hours in Advance of Clinical Onset: A Report of Five Patients*. In: Valavanis, K.P. (eds) Applications of Intelligent Control to Engineering Systems. Intelligent Systems, Control, and Automation: Science and Engineering, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3018-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3018-4_9

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  • Online ISBN: 978-90-481-3018-4

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