While doctors have long characterised epilepsy as a brain disorder researchers have now found that certain changes in heart activity may precede the onset of the disorder in children. All the findings of our study on heart rate variability in epilepsy point to increased activity in the parasympathetic nervous system during sleep said senior author of the study Roberto Fernandez Galan assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio US. But we do not know if this abnormality compensates for epilepsy coincides with the disease or is part of the etiology Galan noted.
