A dipole model for spreading cortical depression

Spreading Cortical Depression (SCD) is the hyper-excitation, followed by extreme suppression of spontaneous electrical activity in the cortex. This work models SCD propagation using current dipoles to represent excitable pyramidal cells. An area of cortex, either gyrus or sulcus, supporting SCD is represented by surface dipoles oriented perpendicular to the surface. Magnetic fields created by these individual surface dipoles are calculated using the Biot-Savart law. We have assumed a plane volume conductor to represent the sulcus to simplify the mathematical derivation. The sources included in cortical surface area of 10(-4)mm2 is represented by a signal dipole. The magnetic field arising from the entire excited area of the cortex is obtained by summing the fields due to these individual dipoles. The simulated waveforms suggest that the shapes, amplitudes, and durations of the SCD signals depend on the size of the active area of cortex involved in SCD, as well as the location and orientation of the detector. Using this dipole model, we are able to simulate the Large Amplitude Waves (LAWs) similar to those observed by Barkley et al. (1990) while measuring spontaneous activity from migraine headache patients using the assumption that these LAWs arise from propagation of SCD across a sulcus. The shape of the simulated LAW waveform is strongly influenced by the relationships between the detector location and orientation, the propagation direction of the SCD wave, and the orientation of the sulcus.