What triggers a generalized seizure?

What triggers a generalized seizure?

Charles Ribak, Ph.D. (Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, UC Irvine School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: What happens to the brain and body during a generalized seizure?; What do I do if I think I'm going to have a generalized seizure?; What do I do if I see someone having a generalized seizure? and more...

With regards to generalized seizures, what triggers a generalized seizure is something we really don't know. There are many different causes for seizures, many underlying causes. What essentially is the exact trigger for the brain at that moment that produces a generalized seizure is still a mystery and we are still trying to work on that in research laboratories and clinical laboratories throughout the world. In certain types of epilepsy there can be a trigger, for example, in a small percentage under 5%, photosensitivity will trigger a seizure. This would be a strobe light, once used on the disco floors in the 1970s. The strobe light flashes a light into the eyes of the individual and this can oftentimes trigger a seizure. Now it is possible whether this does trigger a generalized seizure or any another type of epileptic seizure.