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Wednesday's Health Report: Scientists look to stop seizures using deep brain stimulation
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BATON ROUGE — When there's a mystery, it's crucial to find a clue.
"We're looking for that brain signal fingerprint, if you will, that, yes, these are the right stimulation settings that are pushing the brain toward a state where seizures are less likely,” Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon Jonathon Parker said.
A seizure is like an electrical storm in the brain. Epilepsy is the most common cause of seizures.
"Patients having multiple attacks, sometimes per day or per week, if we're able to dramatically reduce them, it allows them to live their life in a much more predictable fashion, easier for them to do the things that they like to do in life without having to live in fear of these uncontrolled neurological attacks,” Parker said.
In their biomarker discovery initiative, Mayo Clinic researchers like Parker are studying how different parts of the brain respond to different stimulation patterns.
"What we'd like to do is dial in and understand for individual patients, for their brain, for their epilepsy, what is the best parameters, what is the best settings for them,” Parker said.
The team's goal is to use deep brain stimulation to stop seizures and return control to patients' lives.
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