During a seizure, there is a sudden intense burst of electricity that disrupts how the brain usually works. This activity can happen on one small part of the brain and last for just a couple of seconds, or it can spread right across the brain and keep going for many minutes. If you measured the electrical activity of all the brain’s neurons, you would usually see many neurons firing independently, with no obvious rhythm. During an epileptic seizure, the firing pattern of your neurons changes. This can lead to many neurons generating electrical pulses at the same time, which you experience as a seizure.
When a seizure occurs, one or more parts of the brain has a burst of abnormal electrical signals that interrupt normal brain signals. Anything that interrupts the normal connections between nerve cells in the brain can cause a seizure. The symptoms depend on which area of the brain is affected. If the abnormal electrical brain function is in the part of the brain involved with vision (occipital lobe), your sight may be altered. More often, muscles are affected. The seizure activity is limited to an isolated muscle group. For example, it may only include the fingers, or larger muscles in the arms and legs. You may also have sweating, nausea, or become pale. You don’t lose consciousness in this type of seizure.
During a seizure, the brains normal electrical activity gets disrupted. Nearby groups of neurons activate in a coordinated pattern, creating a surge of activity that might be located in one area of the brain. This scrambles the ‘messages’ that the brain sends out to the rest of the body. Because the messages are scrambled, seizures are often accompanied by uncontrollable movements and changes in emotions or behavior.
If seizures keep happening or last too long, these electrical malfunctions will damage and destroy brain cells. When this happens to enough neurons in a part of the brain, the result could be permanent brain damage. Seizures can also cause severe changes in blood chemistry as the body tries to manage the physical effects of convulsions. The chemical changes in the blood can cause permanent brain damage if they last too long.
