====== Sensory stimulus ======
A sensory stimulus is any event or object that is received by the senses and elicits a response from a person. The stimulus can come in many forms such as light, heat, sound, touch, as well as from internal factors.

Inhibition of [[epileptic discharge]]s and [[seizure]]s by sensory stimulus is an interesting phenomenon, but highly understudied. 

Elmalı et al. aimed to investigate the [[modulation]] of epileptiform discharges in patients with [[mesial temporal lobe epilepsy]] associated with [[hippocampal sclerosis]] (MTLE-HS) via [[photic stimulation]] (PS), based on a hypothesis that [[light stimulation]] may activate [[thalamocortical network]]s limiting the propagation of [[interictal epileptiform discharges]]. In order to do so, all [[EEG]]s performed in patients diagnosed with [[MTLE]]-HS were reviewed to include available recordings with definite epileptiform abnormalities. These were reevaluated by two clinical neurophysiologists independently, and [[spike]]s were counted in a blinded manner to calculate spike index (SI) (spikes per minute-pm) for baseline EEG, hyperventilation (HV), and PS periods. Our final study group consisted of 30 MTLE-HS patients with a mean age of 34.5 (±12.5) years. Mean seizure frequency was 38.1 per year (±46.6), and the mean disease duration was 16.2 years (±12.1). Mean SI during baseline was calculated as 1.17 pm (±1.4), during HV 2.1 pm (±2.8) and during PS 0.8 pm (±2.5). As a result, SI was significantly lower during PS compared to baseline (p = 0.001). The findings suggest that PS has a remarkable inhibitory effect on epileptiform discharges in MTLE-HS patients, indicating the need for further prospective investigations for clinical translation
((Elmalı AD, Ur Özçelik E, Bebek N, Baykan B. Let there be light: Inhibitory effect of [[photic stimulation]] on spike frequency in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis. Epilepsy Res. 2021 Jul 27;176:106734. doi: 10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2021.106734. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34371448.)).