This video explores the historical and modern understanding of seizures, tracing their origins from ancient beliefs to contemporary medical treatments. It delves into the causes of seizures, the role of the brain, and the development of treatments such as sedative drugs and surgical interventions.

What Causes Seizures, and How Can We Treat Them? Nearly three millennia ago, a Babylonian tablet described a curious illness called "miktu." Said to cause symptoms ranging from facial twitching to full-body convulsions, the Babylonians believed those afflicted were possessed by evil spirits, and the only treatment was divine intervention. Today, we know the symptoms of "miktu" by another name, and modern medicine has developed numerous treatments for those experiencing seizures. But these ancient afflictions still hold a surprising number of secrets. Doctors define a seizure as any set of symptoms resulting from excess electrical activity in the brain. Outside this shared feature, there is a massive range of seizure symptoms, and researchers have identified a variety of different seizure types. But regardless of the underlying conditions that cause them, every seizure begins here. Hippocrates identified the brain as the source of seizures around 400 BCE. However, this insight didn't immediately lead to better treatments. Generally, ancient Greeks prescribed medicinal herbs and alterations in diet. If they believed the seizure was caused by bleeding in the skull, they sometimes employed a technique called trepanation. This early surgery involved drilling a hole in the skull to let blood escape and relieve pressure on the brain. Trepanation had sizable risks, but it wasn't until the 19th century that scientists would make the next leap forward in seizure treatment. In 1870, two German researchers discovered that using electricity to stimulate specific areas of a dog's brain could move parts of its body. Around the same time, other scientists discovered the brain and nervous system were connected via a network of cells called neurons that transmitted electrical signals throughout the body. This established the brain as the control center for nerve impulses that determine our thoughts and movement. Better yet, this model made it clear that seizures were due to errors in that control center, such as misfiring neurons or excess electrical activity. Early experiments even suggested that different patterns of misfiring could account for different seizure types and symptoms. So if seizures were due to neurons misfiring, how could doctors stop this from happening? Physicians like Sir Charles Lowcock hypothesized that sedative drugs might calm overactive brain activity—a theory he confirmed by treating seizures with a medication called potassium bromide. Others, like Sir Victor Horsley, suspected that removing damaged parts of the brain might stop a patient's seizures. In 1886, he performed—