Organization and control of hippocampal circuits in epilepsy
Basket cells are key GABAergic inhibitory interneurons that target the somata and proximal dendrites, enabling efficient control of the timing and rate of spiking of their postsynaptic targets. In all cortical circuits, there are two major types of basket cell that exhibit striking developmental, molecular, anatomical, and physiological differences. In this talk, I will discuss recent results that reveal the tightly coupled complementarity of these two key microcircuit regulatory modules, demonstrating a novel form of brain-state-specific segregation of inhibition during spontaneous behavior, with implications for the assessment of dysregulated inhibition in epilepsy. In addition, I will describe recent advances in our understanding of the spatio-temporal dynamics of endocannabinoid signaling in hippocampal circuits and discuss how abnormal amplification of these activity-dependent signaling processes leads to surprising downstream effects in seizures.
Is it Autism or Alexithymia? explaining atypical socioemotional processing
Emotion processing is thought to be impaired in autism and linked to atypical visual exploration and arousal modulation to others faces and gaze, yet evidence is equivocal. We propose that, where observed, atypical socioemotional processing is due to alexithymia, a distinct but frequently co-occurring condition which affects emotional self-awareness and Interoception. In study 1 (N = 80), we tested this hypothesis by studying the spatio-temporal dynamics and entropy of eye-gaze during emotion processing tasks. Evidence from traditional and novel methods revealed that atypical eye-gaze and emotion recognition is best predicted by alexithymia in both autistic and non-autistic individuals. In Study 2 (N = 70), we assessed interoceptive and autonomic signals implicated in socioemotional processing, and found evidence for alexithymia (not autism) driven effects on gaze and arousal modulation to emotions. We also conducted two large-scale studies (N = 1300), using confirmatory factor-analytic and network modelling and found evidence that Alexithymia and Autism are distinct at both a latent level and their intercorrelations. We argue that: 1) models of socioemotional processing in autism should conceptualise difficulties as intrinsic to alexithymia, and 2) assessment of alexithymia is crucial for diagnosis and personalised interventions in autism.