Schematics of the Brain and Electroencephalographic Recording of a Seizure (IMAGE)

American Institute of Physics

Schematics of the Brain and Electroencephalographic Recording of a Seizure

Caption

By studying the brain dynamics of 28 subjects with epilepsy, scientists demonstrated there is no evidence for a previously suspected warning sign for seizures known as "critical slowing down," which refers to characteristic changes in the behavior of a complex system that approaches a theoretical tipping point; when this point is exceeded, there can be impactful and devastating changes. The researchers discuss their work in this week's Chaos. This image shows schematics of the brain and electroencephalographic recording of a seizure. Bottom: Indicator of critical slowing down for three seizures from a subject with epilepsy. Time point zero indicates seizure onset.

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Klaus Lehnertz

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