Fig. 4: Total firing of cortical and thalamic neurons during absence seizures shows decreased overall firing rate and increased rhythmicity.
a Mean firing dynamics around seizure start and end of all cortical neurons in 0.5 s bins, showing overall decrease in firing associated with seizures, as well as a dip in firing 2–3 s prior to seizure onset followed by a transient peak in firing that coincides with seizure initiation. b Mean firing rate in each cortical neuron showing overall lower firing rate during seizure than during 5 s pre-seizure baseline (p = 0.001). c Mean firing dynamics around seizure start and end of all thalamic neurons showing similar initial dip, transient peak and then overall decrease in firing. d As in b but for thalamic neurons (p = 5.4 × 10−12). e Distribution of action potentials around spike-and-wave complex electroencephalogram (EEG) spikes (time 0) in 1 ms bins of all cortical neurons, showing oscillations in firing that are relatively increased during the EEG spikes (Peak Surplus firing, red) and decreased during the EEG wave component (Trough Deficit firing, blue) relative to Baseline non-seizure periods (amber). f mean rhythmicity of each cortical neuron showing higher value during seizure than in 5 s pre-seizure baseline (p = 2.3 × 10−9). g: Mean absolute spike differential from baseline per spike-wave complex in peak and trough periods, for cortical neurons, showing that troughs exceed peaks (p = 0.006). h As in e but for thalamic neurons. i As in f but for thalamic neurons (p = 8.9 × 10−17). j As in g but for thalamic neurons (p = 0.0007). Data are from 165 cortical neurons in 7 animals and 163 thalamic neurons in 7 animals. All traces are mean and corresponding shading denotes standard error of the mean; all statistical tests are two-sided paired t-tests. Purple colors indicate cortical data (a, b, f) and green colors thalamic data (c, d, i). Source data are provided in Source Data file.
