[Cellular basis of transition between sleep and electrographic seizures].
Epileptic seizures mainly develop during slow-wave sleep. Our experiments, using multi-site, extra- and intracellular recordings, show a transformation without discontinuity from sleep patterns to seizures. The cerebral cortex is the minimal substrate of paroxysms with spike-wave complexes at ~3 Hz. Simultaneously, thalamocortical neurons are steadily inhibited and cannot relay signals from the outside world to cortex. This may explain the unconsciousness during certain types of epilepsy.
Steriade
Mircea
M
Laboratoire de neurophysiologie, Département d'anatomie et physiologie, Faculté de médecine, Université Laval, Québec, G1K 7P4 Canada. mircea.steirade@phs.ulaval.ca
Amzica
Florin
F
Timofeev
Igor
I
D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D012640:Seizures / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D014474:Unconsciousness