Review: seizure-related consolidation and the network theory of epilepsy

Epilepsy is a complex, multifaceted disease that affects patients in several ways in addition to seizures, including psychological, social, and quality of life issues, but epilepsy is also known to interact with sleep. Seizures often occur at the boundary between sleep and wake, patients with epilepsy often experience disrupted sleep, and the rate of inter-ictal epileptiform discharges increases during non-REM sleep. The Network Theory of Epilepsy did not address a role for sleep, but recent emphasis on the interaction between epilepsy and sleep suggests that post-seizure sleep may also be involved in the process by which seizures arise and become more severe with time ("epileptogenesis") by co-opting processes related to the formation of long-term memories. While it is generally acknowledged that recurrent seizures arise from the aberrant function of neural circuits, it is possible that the progression of epilepsy is aided by normal, physiological function of neural circuits during sleep that are driven by pathological signals. Studies recording multiple, single neurons prior to spontaneous seizures have shown that neural assemblies activated prior to the start of seizures were reactivated during post-seizure sleep, similar to the reactivation of behavioral neural assemblies, which is thought to be involved in the formation of long-term memories, a process known as Memory Consolidation. The reactivation of seizure-related neural assemblies during sleep was thus described as being a component of Seizure-Related Consolidation (SRC). These results further suggest that SRC may viewed as a network-related aspect of epilepsy, even in those seizures that have anatomically restricted neuroanatomical origins. As suggested by the Network Theory of Epilepsy as a means of interfering with ictogenesis, therapies that interfered with SRC may provide some anti-epileptogenic therapeutic benefit, even if the interference targeted structures that were not involved originally in the seizure. Here, we show how the Network Theory of Epilepsy can be expanded to include neural plasticity mechanisms associated with learning by providing an overview of Memory Consolidation, the mechanisms thought to underlie MC, their relation to Seizure-Related Consolidation, and suggesting novel, anti-epileptogenic therapies targeting interference with network activation in epilepsy following seizures during post-seizure sleep.