Engineering Undergrads Develop A Revolutionary Seizure Detection System

I wonder how animals detect seizures...

From the Epilepsy Foundation, Its found that a dog can detect a seizure up to 7 minutes before the episode.

It seems likely that the body chemistry changes and dogs detect the difference by scent.

I have read where they can smell cancers... before they are diagnosed.

I don't know of any other sense that they could be using.

I'll need to reread the article and find more background how they are detecting these 'neurological signals'... It appears when that happens, is already on its way...

if one can detect what sets up these 'neurological signals' like a dog can, you can gain an extra couple of minute to prepare.

Seizure dogs are becoming popular as a kind of last line of defense for kids with untreatable epilepsy.

I've witnessed my own pets exhibiting behavior that makes me think they can somehow detect illness or distress. My grandma absolutely hated cats, but starting about two years before she died my cat would not stop laying on and pawing her stomach whenever she sat down in my house. She ended up dying of stomach cancer, and the docs estimated that she'd had it for several years starting about the time my cat exhibited that behavior. We think he somehow sensed it.

Interesting,...

I just found out,.. literal 2-3 days ago, that a cats sense of smell is almost as sensitive as a dogs..

The apparatus is a belt that measures skin conductivity and breathing rate. I can see how higher skin conductivity (perspiration) and scent picked up by a dog could be connected.

Are we going to start back up on that argument about measuring body fat content through EC measurements, AND stop epilepsy in its tracks in one swell foop?

I don't see what this has to do with body fat.

I suspect that dogs have an olfactory channel of communication that is much more inscrutable to us than human speech is to a dog.

No, I was referring to this giant argument over whether one can or cannot measure body fat content by EC (apparently some fitness palace gadget claims this).

What a crock! I think my dog could detect a seizure coming on, and this weekend, I met a dog that is suffering from epilepsy. Did you know that dogs can get that condition? They are using a panel of the usual drugs to treat his condition.

"If a seizure’s detected, the hardware relays neurostimulation signals back to the electrode to stop the seizure from occurring. The team’s project was ultimately successful, detecting every seizure at least two minutes before its occurrence, with 3.9 false positives per hour."

This might be good for a detection system, but with ~4 false positives/hour, that is a lot of unnecessary shocks to the brain.

the risk/benefit will have to be determined.

I'm sure as they look into the development further, that can improve the accuracy.

3.9 false positives per hour does not mean 3.9 false positives per hour per person. Few epileptics have seizures more than once per day and many much less frequently, sometimes going years between episodes. This statistic is very poorly worded and gives no indication how it was derived.

I agree that 3.9 false positives per hour is very circumspect. I suspect the time unit of an hour is the error. This numeric error per week, month, semester or in total would be worthy of bragging rights. I greatly doubt the number of test subjects mitigate this error rate for six subjects would still mean someone had a false positive every day. It also seems very unlikely an undergraduate engineering team in a competition would be allowed even six known epileptic subjects they could gather data and shock with daily false positives triggering a shock.

Remarkably, the ketogenic diet is quite similar to the new diabetic type II diet I am currently using. Coconut oil (MCT's) are a key component, along with all other healthy fats (discluding transfats), limitation of carbohydrates to a target of 50 g per day (regardless of the type), protein in normal amounts, plenty of vegetables, just very little potatoes.

Interesting indeed!

I find it somewhat difficult to leave off the types of carbs that used to find me. Donuts, hamburger buns, wheat bread, so now, it is just oats with berries and milk in the morning (loaded with MCT extra, and plenty of butter, even walnuts)

At least, I can have all the bacon and ham I want.

With 3.9 false positives per hour (per subject?) this leads me to a few questions.

• How many true positives per hour happened? If hundreds of false positives were detected for each true positive I then wonder if just random luck of triggering an alarm every 15 minutes lands within 2 minutes of a real seizure.
• What effect did the electrodes have on the subject during a false positive event?
• How was a false positive result determined? Possibly some of the false positive results were actually successful interruptions of a seizure.

I suspect these questions are answered in the scholastic report.

They should buy a black-crested conure. We have one at home, and I have a seizure every time he bites me.