Optical analysis of acute spontaneous epileptiform discharges in the in vivo rat cerebral cortex

We examined the spatiotemporal patterns of spontaneous epileptiform activity observed in the in vivo rat cerebral cortex using an optical recording technique of detecting transmembrane voltage changes. The surface of the cerebral cortex was exposed under anesthesia and stained with a fluorescent voltage-sensitive dye, RH414. Acute spontaneous epileptiform discharges were induced by application of a GABA(A) receptor antagonist, bicuculline. Changes in the intensity of fluorescence were recorded from the cerebral cortex using a 464-channel optic fiber photodiode system. We succeeded in recording spontaneous epileptiform discharges, and constructed their initiation-site maps. We found that the initiation site was neither unique nor randomly located, but exhibited a multimodal distribution pattern. The incidence of epileptiform discharges was different between the initiation sites, and some sites showed dominance in the induction of spontaneous epileptiform discharges.