Class notes
Seizures Notes
- Course
- 1:830:310:01
- Institution
- Rutgers University - New Brunswick/Piscataway
Lecture notes about seizures including epilepsy, classification, diagnosis, Broadmann's map, etc.
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● Epilepsy:○ primary symptom of epilepsy is seizures but not all seizures are the result of
epilepsy (e.g. brain damage, tumors)
○ people with epilepsy have seizures generated by their own brain dysfunction
○ 1-4% of the population for whom there will be multiple seizure episodes (but 1:20
will have a mild, insignificant seizure once)
○ difficult to diagnose due to the diversity and complexity of epileptic seizures
● Old Classification:
○ Grand mal (big bad): loss of consciousness and equilibrium; tonic clonic
convulsions (rigidity and tremors, also known as tonus and clonus); resulting
hypoxia may cause brain damage
○ Petit mal (little bad): not associated with convulsions; a disruption of
consciousness associated with a cessation of ongoing behavior
● New Classification:
○ Partial seizure does not involve the whole brain; starts in some section of the brain
and eventually spreads; simple is no alternations in consciousness; complex is
altered awareness AND sensory or motor symptoms; secondarily generalized
seizure begins in one place and spreads
○ Generalized seizure involves the entire brain; primary generalized seizure starts in
the thalamus (connects to the entire cortex) and radiates out from there;
secondarily generalized seizure it spreads to the thalamus and then it generalizes
● Seizure phases/types:
○ Phases: aura, seizure, post-ictal
○ Types of symptoms: tonic, clonic, tonic-clonic, myotonic (tremors), atonic (going
all tone; going limp)
○ Temportal 30-50%; Frontal 20-25%; Occipital and Parietal 5-7%
● Diagnosis:
○ Seizure: careful history, what type of seizure was it?
○ Tests: EEG, blood work, scans
○ Differential diagnosis i.e. ruling out other conditions like syncope, narcolepsy,
migraines, panic disorder
○ Determine what type of seizure disorder and decide on therapy
● Cortex (bark; gray mater) Remainders:
○ Cortex arranged into six layers of cells
○ Information comes in 4a, 4b, and 4c; 1-3 layers is information gets integrated; 5
and 6 is output information
○ Each column consists of several laminae; neurons in a given column have similar
properties (e.g. in the somatosensory cortex, all the neurons within a given
column respond to stimulation of the same area of skin)
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