Neuroimaging Study Reveals Link Between Stress, Epileptic Seizures

A study presented at the 66th American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting has identified a significant difference in the brain response to stress in patients who believe stress is an important factor in their seizure control compared to patients who do not hold this belief. To better understand the potential role of stress among these patients, researchers in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati conducted a functional neuroimaging study of patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy under imposed psychosocial stress.

All subjects in the study were given math exercises to complete — simple problems during the control task and difficult problems during the stress task. Subjects were provided with positive feedback during the simple math problems and negative feedback during the difficult ones, regardless of how well they were doing. For more information, click here to read the full release.