Professor John Jeffreys of the Neuronal Network Group, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Birmingham will give this lecture as part of the Neurosciences in the evening series.
The sometimes dramatic symptoms of epileptic seizures, and rapid recovery of normal brain activity, make epilepsy an unusual neurological condition. Perhaps as a result, documentary evidence of epilepsy dates back to Babylonian tablets of ~1000 BC. Hippocrates recognised the role of the brain in his essay “On the Sacred Disease” around 400 BC. Epilepsy is a complex condition that does not have to limit achievement, as witnessed by many historical figures from Socrates and Julius Caesar to Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Edward Lear.
Epilepsy is a class of neurological disease in which the activity of the brain is transiently disturbed, leading to clinically recognizable seizures. Research on epilepsy over the past century or so has led to significant advances in treatment, but it also has told us a great deal about the functioning of the normal brain. Indeed epilepsy has been described as a “window on brain mechanisms”. Tonight’s presenters will present short talks on both fundamental and practical issues in epilepsy research, and will lead discussions with the audience
Cost: Free of Charge