SeminarPast EventNeuroscience

Positive and negative feedback in seizure initiation

Schedule
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
16:00 UTC
Andrew Trevelyan

Prof

Newcastle University

Host: Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy

Event Information

Host

Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy

Duration

70 minutes

Abstract

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.

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