Brain activity and ion channels In general, brain cells send signals by allowing electrically charged particles called ions to flow in and out of them. The body has many methods of controlling this signalling, but one of the main ways…
Category: Basic Science
The curious multiple lives of ATP in epilepsy
The many lives of ATP Our keenest readers will remember a post from around this time last year about mitochondrial epilepsy. There, we learnt that the cells in our body, including brain cells, rely on a small molecule called ATP…
Targeting new brain structures to treat temporal lobe epilepsy
It is estimated that in the US alone, almost 200,000 people suffer from drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy. This is a specific sub-set of temporal lobe epilepsy where seizures can’t be adequately controlled by the medications which are currently available. About…
New directions in epilepsy research: treatments of the future?
We at Epilepsy in English were lucky enough to attend the British Neuroscience Association’s ‘Festival of Neuroscience’ in Dublin. It was a great opportunity to learn what is happening in the neuroscience field in the UK and Ireland. Amongst other…
New disease model sheds light on mitochondrial epilepsy
Our brains are hungry beasts There are around 86 billion (yes, billion) electrically active cells in the average human brain. Each one of these cells can connect to multiple others, adding up to something like 10 trillion (yes, trillion) intricate…