How does spreading depression spread? Physiology and modeling

How does spreading depression spread? Physiology and modeling.

Spreading depression (SD) is a wave phenomenon in gray matter tissue. Locally, it is characterized by massive redistribution of ions across cell membranes. As a consequence, there is sustained membrane depolarization and tissue polarization that depress any normal electrical activity. Despite these dramatic events, SD remains difficult to observe in humans noninvasively, which, for long, has sl...

How Does Plague Spread

How does epileptic activity spread?

Commentary Typical epileptic seizures are recorded as large rhythmic electrical activity in the neocortex, hippocampus, and other brain structures. This activity is usually thought to be some form of abnormally synchronized synaptic activity, with or without excessive synchronized local neuronal firing (1). Synaptic models have dominated ideas of the basic mechanisms of epileptic discharges for...

Modeling the spreading cortical depression wavefront.

Spreading cortical depression (SCD) is a wave of depolarization that spreads across the cortex at 2-5 mm/min and is followed by a 5-10 minute reduction in EEG activity. It is assumed that SCD is involved in the pathophysiology of migraine. We present a new model and a visualization technique for the spread of excitation on realistic brain surfaces. The usefulness of the technique is demonstrate...

Stochastic modeling of spreading cortical depression

The nonlinear wave phenomenon of cortical spreading depression (SD), which occurs in many brain structures, has mathematical similarities to neuronal spiking but on very different space and time scales. Its properties and previous modeling are briefly reviewed. A model consisting of a 6-component reaction-diffusion system in two space dimensions is described. With 3-parameter Poisson process so...