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[Cellular basis of transition between sleep and electrographic seizures]
Mircea Steriade1, Florin Amzica, Igor Timofeev
1Laboratoire de neurophysiologie, Département d'anatomie et physiologie, Faculté de médecine, Université Laval, Québec, G1K 7P4 Canada. mircea.steirade@phs.ulaval.ca
Medecine Sciences : M/S
|November 13, 2003
Abstract:
Epileptic seizures mainly develop during slow-wave sleep. Our experiments, using multi-site, extra- and intracellular recordings, show a transformation without discontinuity from sleep patterns to seizures. The cerebral cortex is the minimal substrate of paroxysms with spike-wave complexes at ~3 Hz. Simultaneously, thalamocortical neurons are steadily inhibited and cannot relay signals from the outside world to cortex. This may explain the unconsciousness during certain types of epilepsy.