Doctors have long known that changes in body temperature can affect seizure activity. Fever can trigger seizures in some young children, while in rare forms of epilepsy, bathing in hot water can bring on a seizure. Raised body temperature can also trigger seizures in Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that usually begins in infancy and is particularly sensitive to fever and overheating.
Temperature may also move in the other direction. Earlier animal studies found that epilepsy can alter daily temperature rhythms and affect nerve cells in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that helps regulate body temperature.
