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Updated: Jun 17, 2025
Direct-current Stimulation and Multi-electrode Array Recording of Seizure-like Activity in Mice Brain Slice Preparation
Published on: June 7, 2016
Electrographic seizures during low-current thalamic deep brain stimulation in mice
Francisco J Flores1, Isabella Dalla Betta2, John Tauber3
1Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, 02114, MA, USA; Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar St, Cambridge, 02139, MA, USA; Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar St, Cambridge, 02139, MA, USA.
Background:
Deep brain stimulation of the central thalamus (CT-DBS) has potential for modulating states of consciousness, but it can also trigger electrographic seizures, including poly-spike-wave trains (PSWT).
Objectives:
To report the probability of inducing PSWTs during CT-DBS in awake, freely-moving mice.
Methods:
Mice were implanted with electrodes to deliver unilateral and bilateral CT-DBS at different frequencies while recording electroencephalogram (EEG). We titrated stimulation current by gradually increasing it at each frequency until a PSWT appeared. Subsequent stimulations to test arousal modulation were performed at the current one step below the current that caused a PSWT during titration.
Results:
In 2.21% of the test stimulations (10 out of 12 mice), CT-DBS caused PSWTs at currents lower than the titrated current, including currents as low as 20 μA.
Conclusion:
Our study found a small but significant probability of inducing PSWTs even after titration and at relatively low currents. EEG should be closely monitored for electrographic seizures when performing CT-DBS in both research and clinical settings.
