Medical Human brain capability in seizure

[messymarsh]

it comes together as it goes on ask any questions you'd like

So the last couple weeks iv been kinda in a little engineering stage thinking about different ways to produce power and what not in this transition from school to life iv came up with a lot of good ideas and I mean it lol I literally designed a jet engine a turboprop engine and some final drive sloutions that eliminate gear box’s which can take 10% of ur power away unfortunately the two engines have already been made haha. its weird though the way I had designed them was for different purposes and i had no thought of the other while designing them the only reason I found out they were one in the same is because in doing research I discovered what was on my paper is just a different way of achieving what had already been designed and I don’t know this but I think my turboprop design would be more efficient than what's out there right now there’s far less friction in the torque conversion. Aside from that i went to the dr. yesterday while I was there I asked him some questions I’v been wondering about involving “complex partial seizures” I have these and all iv really been told is that I don’t know when I am having them this sometimes puts me in an akward situation because its not the type of seizure where you twitch out I just daze off and might grind my teeth for about 5 or 10 seconds or maybe more so sometimes if I am in a public area I just get this akward vibe and sometimes I think ok so did I just have one of those siezures but I don’t know! No ones ever said anything to me about it and when I asked my doctor he said ur brain literally erases all memory of it so there's no way of knowing, going further into this I sometimes get answers to problems by just looking at them and I am not really that good at math and obviously I check it because I am not gona write a number down that just poped up in my head usualy its very close, or right. So after talking to the doctor the other day I am starting to form a strange theory. siezures are episodes of disturbed brain function that cause changes in attention or behavior. They are caused by “abnormally excited electrical signals in the brain.” so while I am spacing out for however long it might be do the “abnormally excited electrical signals in the brain.” go through all kinds of combinations with the numbers in a split second time period then earase all memory of doing it and leave me with an answer? Did I have a complex partial seizure while my brain scanned through all my own knowledge and came up with a redesigned jet and turboprop engine?

the human brain is an amazing thing and if what I am talking about here poses to hold any truth with the right medical science i think could lead to some crazy things i just started using this website for engineering and saw this section and decided to post this to see what kind of feed back i got on it let me know

 

[zoobyshoe]

They are caused by “abnormally excited electrical signals in the brain.” so while I am spacing out for however long it might be do the “abnormally excited electrical signals in the brain.” go through all kinds of combinations with the numbers in a split second time period then earase all memory of doing it and leave me with an answer?

I think it's pretty unlikely you're performing computations during a seizure.

The abnormal excitation consists of what is called "hypersynchronous firing". That means the neurons involved in the seizure are all firing in time with each other at the same rate. When they do that they stop doing anything useful. Imagine that at 12 noon tomorrow all the postal workers in the city of New York stopped what they were doing and suddenly began marching in place, all in time with each other, left, right, left, right, left, right for half a minute. The whole postal system would be shut down during that time: no customers waited on, no mail sorted, no planes and trucks loaded, no mailboxes stuffed. All the workers would be extremely active, but not doing anything useful. All the parts of your brain that aren't involved in the seizure are now in a pickle because if they need to interact with the part of the brain that's seizing they just have to wait, and it confuses them in the meantime.

There are two levels of partial seizures:

Simple Partial Seizures

Complex Partial seizures

I have simple partials. In a simple partial there is no defect of consciousness. I am aware throughout the whole thing and can remember it. In a complex partial your consciousness suffers a "defect" during the seizure, and you have amnesia for the seizure after the fact. It could be in the past I had some complex partials because for a while I seemed to be having problems with "missing time", but I can't be sure. That hasn't happened in years.

The reason you can't remember the seizure is probably not because your brain erases it afterward, but because your brain is in no condition to form memories while it's seizing. The neurons that should work to store it in memory are busy marching in step, so they don't do what they're supposed to be doing.

A simple partial seizure remains "simple" because only one side of the brain is involved. When the seizure activity spreads to the other side through the corpus callosum, that's when you get a complex partial with the defect of consciousness and amnesia. When the activity spreads it travels to a "mirror focus". That means it's in roughly the same place in the opposite hemisphere as it is in the original hemisphere. Seizure activity seems to favor symmetry for some reason.

Your interest in engineering improvements is pretty classic. It's very common for people with partial seizures in the temporal lobes to become obsessive thinkers and problem solvers, to start paying close attention to details and spend hours thinking about things, probing every nook and cranny of issues for insights and new connections. Often epileptics become obsessive writers, filling journals and diaries, sketchbooks, and notebooks with philosophical thoughts, realizations that seem important, inventions, stories, religious ideas, art, music, poetry. We are enthusiastic about thinking.

The trouble is that, despite that enthusiasm, there's never any guarantee the thinking is quality thinking. Epilepsy does not make you a genius, or even above average, by any means. It just makes you enthusiastic about thinking.

So, I really don't think any of your ideas are coming to you while you are seizing. They are really the result of the fact that temporal lobe seizures change people into enthusiastic thinkers.

Anyway, I hope you're on meds that are controlling your seizures. Be sure to tell your neurologist about the times you suspect you might have had a seizure because people are giving you awkward vibes. The goal is to stop them altogether. If what you're taking isn't working there's plenty others to try.

 

[messymarsh]

thanks for your insight i thought it was highly unlikely that was happening too but just was curious.the other information you provided also explain's perfeclty things I've wondered about since the other year when i had my first seizure, great reply

I think it's pretty unlikely you're performing computations during a seizure.

The abnormal excitation consists of what is called "hypersynchronous firing". That means the neurons involved in the seizure are all firing in time with each other at the same rate. When they do that they stop doing anything useful. Imagine that at 12 noon tomorrow all the postal workers in the city of New York stopped what they were doing and suddenly began marching in place, all in time with each other, left, right, left, right, left, right for half a minute. The whole postal system would be shut down during that time: no customers waited on, no mail sorted, no planes and trucks loaded, no mailboxes stuffed. All the workers would be extremely active, but not doing anything useful. All the parts of your brain that aren't involved in the seizure are now in a pickle because if they need to interact with the part of the brain that's seizing they just have to wait, and it confuses them in the meantime.

There are two levels of partial seizures:

Simple Partial Seizures

Complex Partial seizures

I have simple partials. In a simple partial there is no defect of consciousness. I am aware throughout the whole thing and can remember it. In a complex partial your consciousness suffers a "defect" during the seizure, and you have amnesia for the seizure after the fact. It could be in the past I had some complex partials because for a while I seemed to be having problems with "missing time", but I can't be sure. That hasn't happened in years.

The reason you can't remember the seizure is probably not because your brain erases it afterward, but because your brain is in no condition to form memories while it's seizing. The neurons that should work to store it in memory are busy marching in step, so they don't do what they're supposed to be doing.

A simple partial seizure remains "simple" because only one side of the brain is involved. When the seizure activity spreads to the other side through the corpus callosum, that's when you get a complex partial with the defect of consciousness and amnesia. When the activity spreads it travels to a "mirror focus". That means it's in roughly the same place in the opposite hemisphere as it is in the original hemisphere. Seizure activity seems to favor symmetry for some reason.

Your interest in engineering improvements is pretty classic. It's very common for people with partial seizures in the temporal lobes to become obsessive thinkers and problem solvers, to start paying close attention to details and spend hours thinking about things, probing every nook and cranny of issues for insights and new connections. Often epileptics become obsessive writers, filling journals and diaries, sketchbooks, and notebooks with philosophical thoughts, realizations that seem important, inventions, stories, religious ideas, art, music, poetry. We are enthusiastic about thinking.

The trouble is that, despite that enthusiasm, there's never any guarantee the thinking is quality thinking. Epilepsy does not make you a genius, or even above average, by any means. It just makes you enthusiastic about thinking.

So, I really don't think any of your ideas are coming to you while you are seizing. They are really the result of the fact that temporal lobe seizures change people into enthusiastic thinkers.

Anyway, I hope you're on meds that are controlling your seizures. Be sure to tell your neurologist about the times you suspect you might have had a seizure because people are giving you awkward vibes. The goal is to stop them altogether. If what you're taking isn't working there's plenty others to try.

 

[zoobyshoe]

thanks for your insight i thought it was highly unlikely that was happening too but just was curious.the other information you provided also explain's perfeclty things I've wondered about since the other year when i had my first seizure, great reply

You're quite welcome. Glad the explanation was useful.