- Poster presentation
- Open access
- Published:
Theoretical descriptions of EEG activity: application to absence seizures
BMC Neuroscience volume 10, Article number: P74 (2009)
Introduction
Absence seizures are a class of primary generalized seizures, which typically affect children and young adults. Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings of patients with absence seizures display 2–4 Hz rhythmic activity, the classically observed rhythm being a discharge with a sharp spike and slow wave. However, a systematic study of data from a number of subjects with absence seizures also revealed poly-spike and wave, wave-spike or even no discernable spike-wave onset during seizure events. We present a unifying mathematical framework to study the mechanisms underlying these EEG signals.
Methods
The model we introduce is a cortico-thalamic system, used to describe the brain's electrical activity as recorded via EEG. The bifurcation structure of this model has been analyzed with the software package MATCONT. The aim of our analysis was to identify parameters that are crucial for the onset of abnormal activity, and investigate mechanisms leading to (poly)spike wave solutions.
Results
We identified regions in parameter-space where our model supports (poly)spike wave activity. Transitions into these regions occur through Hopf bifurcations, and also through bistability. Hence, our model incorporates two mechanisms to simulate the onset of seizures. Moreover, we investigate the onset of poly-spike wave oscillations; these solutions are created through inflection-points, which depend on inhibitory synaptic timescales.
Discussion
By studying the transitions in a theoretical model for EEG, using a numerical bifurcation analysis, we have identified parameters and mechanisms leading to the onset of (poly)spike wave dynamics. Future work will include a comparison between model and data, by means of parameter fitting. In addition, we aim to enhance our modelling approach by including spatial extent, physiological effects such as neurotransmitter timescales and anatomical effects such as volume conduction.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
About this article
Cite this article
Marten, F., Rodrigues, S., Suffczynski, P. et al. Theoretical descriptions of EEG activity: application to absence seizures. BMC Neurosci 10 (Suppl 1), P74 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-10-S1-P74
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-10-S1-P74