Researchers report that they have created a device able to short-circuit epileptic seizures in rats. Similar in design to an implantable defibrillator, the device is placed in the brain and reacts only when a seizure starts to occur, essentially aborting the seizure’s electrical activity. The self-adjusting device electrically stimulates the brain at the beginning of a short but frequent type of seizure in rats, and then automatically shuts itself off. The research was published in the Aug. 10 issue of the journal Science.
