EEG has become very popular in recent years, and for good reason. The effects of scans are insights into otherwise unknown areas at a reasonable cost. Treatments also exist, most commonly called neurofeedback, of which its effects are vast, ranging from relief of symptoms in common neurological and emotional disorders like: ADHD, anxiety, depression, PTSD, social challenges, and the like.
Did you know that a recent study at Stanford predicated on the idea that society does nobody needs to be a victim of silent seizures any longer.
Silent seizures also known as petit mal seizures or absence seizures, are epileptic seizures that occur undetected, no convulsions, for less than 15 seconds and usually are in children aged 4-14. While normally these seizures are not the root of long term problems, they can affect learning and concentration for those affected.
In fact while the person is having a silent seizure they report “blanking out”, not speaking, hearing or appearing to understand anything. And when the seizure is over they seem as if nothing even happened. In many cases they cannot recount what just happened.
EEG has been used for some time to diagnose silent seizures, but usually that meant testing, bringing the data back to a lab, analyzing, then reporting a week or two later. These Stanford scientists wouldn’t have it so they teamed up with a professor of music and wrote some algorithms to translate typical seizure related brain waves into music in hopes that with some further development it would produce a handheld device that doctors, nurses, and medical technicians could use in real-time as a sort of “brain stethoscope” to quickly and accurately test patients for silent seizures and likely more!
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