The link between brain health and climatic disruption was recently highlighted through a 16-minute mini-documentary disseminated on May 18 and carried out by Futureuro, Irish Center for Research on Translational Cerebral Sciences (RCSI) of the University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Made in partnership with the International League against Epilepsy (ILAE), the film recalls that more than three billion people worldwide suffer from neurological disorders. However, recent research has a link between the increase in temperatures and an exacerbation of the symptoms of certain neurological diseases sensitive to temperature variations. This is for example the case in people with Dravet syndrome, a form of serious and rare epilepsy in children, in whom a sudden increase in temperatures is likely to cause the more frequent occurrence of crises, as well as alteration of brain functions.
“”The brain is the key to our response to the challenges of our environment and many parts of the brain are sensitive to the temperature at which they must work. Therefore, if the brain is already affected by a disease, it can be more vulnerable to the challenges posed by the effects of climate change. While climate change continues to worsen, it is essential that we are paying attention to its effects on people with neurological affections worldwide“, underlines in a press release Sanjay Sisodiya, president of the commission on climate change of the ILAE. This professor in neurology at the London college is also the author of a study published in 2024 in the journal The Lancet Neurology, which demonstrates that extreme temperatures (whether low or high) are likely to exacerbate the disorders linked to 19 neurological diseases, Dementia, epilepsy and migraine.
AI tools to identify populations at risk
The documentary also highlights, through testimonies of patients, the difficulties that people with neurological pathologies may encounter daily, for example the inability to get out of home in the event of a heat wave and the social isolation which can result from it. Extreme temperatures can also disrupt medical supply chains, damage cold drugs and lead access to health care. “”Climate change is one of the most urgent global health challenges of our time, and its impact on people with epilepsy and other neurological diseases is more and more obvious. (…) This film is an important step towards taking into account neurological health in the climate debate“, estimates J. Helen Cross, president of ILAE.
Beyond its primary goal of raising awareness of a phenomenon still too little known, the documentary aims to encourage the financing and the development of more advanced scientific research on the subject. One of the tracks to better understand the link between brain health and increase in temperatures related to climate change is in particular to bet on imaging and genetics technologies, in particular on predictive models piloted by AI to identify populations at risk and develop targeted interventions.
“”New imaging and genetics technologies allow us to know more about brain temperature control systems and how they are altered in conditions such as epilepsy. Understanding these mechanisms could open the way to new treatments or preventive strategies, helping to reduce the impact of heat on the risk of crisis“, Specifies David Henshall, director of Futureuro and professor of molecular physiology and neuroscience at the RCSI.