Prior to Racine's research in animal epilepsy models, a quantifiable means to describe seizure intensities and their causes was not readily available.
In the brain, electrical signals are spread by the firing of neurons which lead to a desired outcome in the body.
[10] For patients with epilepsy, seizure occurs constantly and continue to grow in intensity.
While in the family car, HM experienced a seizure that caused his entire body to convulse.
[12] In 1969, A deep brain stimulation experiment was developed to test the fluctuations of thresholds for patients with epilepsy.
In this experiment, researchers used implanted electrodes to measure the electrographic activity during the introduction of a stimulus and the resulting seizure.
[13] Prior to Racine's research into epilepsy, a standardized scheme for the severity of a seizure was not known.
[3] In 1972, Ronald J. Racine sought to develop a scheme that quantified the severity of a seizure.
Using animal testing (rat kindling model), Racine was able to stimulate specific parts of the brain using slight electrical impulses.
Each rat in the model was anesthetized and special probes were placed into specific parts of the brain according to the target area.
[3] As repeated stimulations in the kindling model continue to occur, the severity of the convulsion increases in a stereotypical pattern described by the Racine stages.
Since its development, the use of the Racine stages has helped further the research into treating epileptic patients.
[7] Depending on the changes in stimuli intensity and duration, researchers add or take away levels according to the needs of the study.