Sudoku puzzle triggers seizures in 25-year-old German man until he stops playing

Sudoku puzzles are definitely brain teasers. However, in a rare case, the Sudoku puzzles induce seizures in a 25-year-old German man. The team of doctors at the University of Munich reports it as an unusual case of reflex epilepsy.

The occurrence of the epileptic seizures when the person starts to solve a Sudoku puzzle has been linked to a ski accident that happened in 2008. The physical education student was on a skiing trip with his friends when he was buried under the ice during an avalanche that hit the place. The accident left his brain oxygen-less for almost 15 minutes.

Problems started to surface after the man returned from the skiing trip. The Guardian reports that he reported of shock-like contractions in his mouth muscle while trying to talk and also had a problem walking.

After a gap of several weeks, the man noticed something weird. He had clonic seizures in his left arm while trying to solve a Sudoku puzzle. The seizures were different from tonic-clonic seizures, wherein the person started to lose consciousness and muscle stiffness followed with jerking movements.

He also observed that the seizures stopped completely as soon as he stopped solving the puzzle. He experienced similar seizures while performing other visual-spatial tasks, such as sorting numbers in ascending or descending order. However, he was normal while doing other things, such as doing calculations, writing or reading.

The case report describing the student's experience has been published online in JAMA Neurology.

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