Gauging seizures’ severity
This low-profile wrist sensor, designed by MIT professor Rosalind Picard and her group, has shown early evidence that it can gauge the severity of epileptic seizures as accurately as scalp-worn electroencephalograms EEGs (shown at right). Image: M. Scott Brauer In this week’s issue of the journal Neurology, researchers at MIT and two Boston hospitals provide early evidence that a simple, unobtrusive wrist sensor could gauge the severity of epileptic seizures as accurately as electroencephalograms (EEGs) do — but without the ungainly scalp electrodes and electrical leads. The device could make it possible to collect clinically useful data from epilepsy patients as they go about their daily lives, rather than requiring them to come to the hospital for observation. And if early results are borne out, it could even alert patients when their seizures are severe enough that they need to seek immediate medical attention.Rosalind Picard, a professor of media arts and...