dendritic excitability

Positive and negative feedback in seizure initiation

Seizure onset is a critically important brain state transition that has proved very difficult to predict accurately from recordings of brain activity. I will present new data acquired using a range of optogenetic and imaging tools to characterize exactly how cortical networks change in the build-up to a seizure. I will show how intermittent optogenetic stimulation ("active probing") reveals a latent change in dendritic excitability that is tightly correlated to the onset of seizure activity. This data relates back to old work from the 1980s suggesting a critical role in epileptic pathophysiology for dendritic plateau potentials. Our data show how the precipitous nature of the transition can be understood in terms of multiple, synergistic positive feedback mechanisms.

Dendritic excitability primarily controls overdispersion

COSYNE 2023

The Lateral Entorhinal Cortex modulates dendritic excitability in the CA1 by recruiting a local disinhibitory microcircuit

Altered dendritic excitability and cell maturation of CA3 pyramidal neurons during development in the Scn2aA263V genetic epilepsy model

FENS Forum 2024