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Updated: May 30, 2026

Continuous Video Electroencephalogram during Hypoxia-Ischemia in Neonatal Mice
Published on: June 11, 2020
Neural dynamics during anoxia and the "wave of death"
Bas-Jan Zandt1, Bennie ten Haken, J Gert van Dijk
1Neuroimaging at MIRA-Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. b.zandt@utwente.nl
Abstract:
Recent experiments in rats have shown the occurrence of a high amplitude slow brain wave in the EEG approximately 1 minute after decapitation, with a duration of 5-15 s (van Rijn et al, PLoS One 6, e16514, 2011) that was presumed to signify the death of brain neurons. We present a computational model of a single neuron and its intra- and extracellular ion concentrations, which shows the physiological mechanism for this observation. The wave is caused by membrane potential oscillations, that occur after the cessation of activity of the sodium-potassium pumps has lead to an excess of extracellular potassium. These oscillations can be described by the Hodgkin-Huxley equations for the sodium and potassium channels, and result in a sudden change in mean membrane voltage. In combination with a high-pass filter, this sudden depolarization leads to a wave in the EEG. We discuss that this process is not necessarily irreversible.
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