Stereotypical activation of hippocampal ensembles during seizures
Résumé
In addition to affecting a person’s behaviour and risk of accidents, seizures are believed to result in various neuro-physiological changes that disrupt nervous system integrity. Although anti-epileptic treatments exist, they are not always effective and in some epilepsy syndromes, such as temporal lobe epilepsy, a large proportion of patients are pharmacologically resistant. In order to develop seizure-preventing treatments, researchers have been trying to identify the neurological
processes leading to seizures. In this issue of Brain ,Neumannandco-workers use extracellular electro-physiological recordings to determine the temporal evolution of neuronal activity preceding and during spontaneous temporal lobe seizures in rats (Neumann et al., 2017). They provide evidence that ictal discharges preferentially recruit specific cell ensembles firing in stereotypical sequences. In contrast to the classic view that seizures result from excessive runaway excitation, they show that the predominant cell types activated during ictal discharges are fast-spiking, putative inhibitory interneurons.
Domaines
Neurosciences [q-bio.NC]
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