Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 14, 2026
Generation and On-Demand Initiation of Acute Ictal Activity in Rodent and Human Tissue
Published on: January 19, 2019
Optogenetic induced epileptiform activity in a model human cortex
Prashanth Selvaraj1, Jamie W Sleigh2, Heidi E Kirsch3
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 94720 CA USA.
Background:
Cortical stimulation plays an important role in the study of epileptic seizures. We present a numerical simulation of stimulation using optogenetic channels expressed by excitatory cells in a mean field model of the human cortex.
Findings:
Depolarising excitatory cells in a patch of model cortex using Channelrhodpsin-2 (ChR2) ion channels, we are able to hyper-excite a normally functioning cortex and mimic seizure activity. The temporal characteristics of optogenetic channels, and the ability to control the frequency of synchronous activity using these properties are also demonstrated.
Conclusions:
Optogenetics is a powerful stimulation technique with high spatial, temporal and cell-type specificity, and would be invaluable in studying seizures and other brain disorders and functions.
