Narrator: This is Science Today. About two-thirds of patients with epilepsy respond to medication, but for those who do not, removal of the part of the brain where the seizures begin may offer a cure. But new University of California, Berkeley research could change that. Mechanical engineer Andrew Szeri created an accurate, mathematical model of the electrical activity that takes place in the brain during a seizure.

Szeri: Because our mathematical model is based on the physiology of the brain, we know what state the mathematical model has to be in order to show the same kinds of seizure dynamics as a patient. So this gives us clues into the underlying causes of the seizure.

Narrator: Szeri explains that just measuring the electrical potential on the surface of the brain doesn't truly uncover the underlying cause of seizures.

Szeri: We hope that the model gives us clues into the underlying causes of this pathological behavior. If we know something about the causes, then we can devise effective treatments, which will hopefully be non-surgical in the long term.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin