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EEG Spiking & Epilepsy

The term "epilepsy" describes a set of symptoms rather than the cause of those symptoms. A patient is epileptic when he or she displays the tendency to have seizures. To help diagnose epileptic conditions, a physician may perform an electroencephalography, or EEG.

  1. Etymology

    • While the procedure is called "electroencephalography," the instrument used to perform the procedure is called an "electroencephalogram." Physicians use "EEG" to refer to both of these. "Electro" shows that it is something involving electricity, while "encephalo" comes from a Greek word referring to the head, and "gram" comes from a Greek word meaning "something written."

    History

    • In 1929, the neurologist Hans Berger invented the electroencephalogram, proving that a machine could measure and record the weak electrical currents of the human brain. Berger also was the first to show that neurological disorders such as epilepsy resulted in abnormal electrical patterns in the brain.

    Significance

    • Epilepsy has always been a vexing abnormality for physicians to treat. Though it is clear that situations such as alcohol withdrawal, low blood sugar, head trauma, and inherited conditions can cause epilepsy, the cause of many cases of epilepsy is still unclear. However, despite the continuing mystery of the condition, the existence of the EEG does help physicians to find more clarity in some specific cases.

    Function

    • EEGs consist of electrodes that a physician places on the patient's scalp and a central unit to which those electrodes connect with wires. Activity in a healthy human brain will appear as a steady stream of spikes and valleys, occurring within a moderate range of amplitude. In cases of epilepsy, though, patients will exhibit extreme spikes of activity that occur at irregular intervals. Such abnormal spikes are a clear sign of an epileptic condition. By determining the location of such spiking activity, neurologists can ascertain whether the problem exists in a specific part of the brain or in the entire brain.

    Misconceptions

    • Though spiking activity is almost always a sign of epilepsy, not all epileptic patients will exhibit such spiking activity in an EEG readout. Often, the only time that spikes occur is during or immediately after an epileptic seizure.

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