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Epilepsy

Single-neuron activity in epilepsy

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 7, page 243 (2011)Cite this article

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Seizures in human focal epilepsy are widely thought to develop from highly synchronized patterns of neuronal activation. This characterization of the disease is now challenged by the work of Wilson Truccolo, Sydney Cash and colleagues; evidence from single-neuron recordings suggests that activity during seizures is more heterogeneous than was previously thought.

Results from EEG studies—which average the activity of cortical neurons—of people with epilepsy have indicated that seizures are caused by hypersynchronous activity across large populations of cortical neurons. However, this view might be partly due to the low spatial resolution of techniques that are commonly used to study epilepsy. The researchers hoped that applying techniques for studying the activity of individual neurons might provide new insights into human epilepsy.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Truccolo, W. et al. Single-neuron dynamics in human focal epilepsy. Nat. Neurosci. doi:10.1038/nn.2782

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  1. Eleanor Beal
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Beal, E. Single-neuron activity in epilepsy. Nat Rev Neurol 7, 243 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2011.56

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