Elevated body temperature alone can increase vulnerability to fever-induced seizures, even in the absence of infection or inflammation.

A mutation associated with epilepsy and autism also is responsible for a “pale eye” trait in two rare genetic disorders, Angelman syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome, neuroscientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported this week.

Understanding how mutations affect the structure and function of inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors will shed light on the mechanisms underlying some types of epilepsy.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University for the first time have demonstrated in a mouse model that aggregation, the “clumping together” of abnormal proteins, can contribute to a severe form of genetic epilepsy.