Epilepsy as a Dynamic Disease

A "brain defibrillator" may be closer than we think. An epileptic seizure involves a paroxysmal change in the activity of millions of neurons. Feedback control of seizures would require an implantable device that could predict seizure occurrence and then deliver a stimulus to abort it. To examine the feasibility of building such a device, this text brings together experts in epilepsy, bio-engineering, and dynamical systems theory. Topics include the development of epileptic systems, seizure prediction, neural synchronization, wave phenomena in excitable media, and the control of complex neural dynamics using brief electrical stimuli.

1 Medically Intractable Epilepsy.- 2 Insights into Seizure Propagation from Axonal Conduction Times.- 3 Dynamic Epileptic Systems Versus Static Epileptic Foci?.- 4 Neuroglia, the Other Brain Cells.- 5 The Electroencephalogram (EEG): A Measure of Neural Synchrony.- 6 Electrocorticographic Coherence Patterns of Epileptic Seizures.- 7 Synchronization of Synaptically-Coupled Neural Oscillators.- 8 Controling Neural Synchrony with Periodic and Aperiodic Stimuli.- 9 Modeling Pattern Formation in Excitable Media: The Legacy of Norbert Wiener.- 10 Are Cardiac Waves Relevant to Epileptic Wave Propagation?.- 11 Pattern Formation in the Microbial World: Dictyostelium Discoideum.- 12 Predicting Epileptic Seizures.- 13 Comparison of Methods for Seizure Detection.- 14 Direct Deep Brain Stimulation: First Steps Towards the Feedback Control of Seizures.- 15 Seizure Control Using Feedback and Electric Fields.- 16 Aborting Seizures with a Single Stimulus: The Case for Multistability.- 17 Unstable Periodic Orbits (UPOs) and Chaos Control in Neural Systems.- 18 Prospects for Building a Therapeutic Cortical Stimulator.- 19 Brain Defibrillators: Synopsis, Problems and Future Directions.- Color Plates.- References.