The deep piriform region has an unusually high seizure susceptibility. Voltage imaging previously located the sites of epileptiform discharge onset in slices of rat piriform cortex and revealed the spatiotemporal pattern of development of two types of electrical activity during the latent period prior to discharge onset. A ramplike depolarization (onset activity) appears at the site of discharg...

We have investigated the propagation of epileptiform discharges induced by 4-aminopyridine (4-AP, 50 microM) in adult mouse hippocampus-entorhinal cortex slices, before and after Schaffer collateral cut. 4-AP application induced 1) ictal epileptiform activity that disappeared over time and 2) interictal epileptiform discharges, which continued throughout the experiment. Using simultaneous field...

Previous experimental studies have shown that various anesthetics alter the effects of cannabinoid agonists and antagonists on the cardiac response to different stimuli. Since no data have shown an interaction between urethane and cannabinoid signaling in epilepsy, we examined the suitability of urethane with regard to testing the effects of a cannabinoid CB1 receptor agonist and an antagonist ...

We describe the short-term effects of high-dose oral diazepam on sleep-potentiated epileptiform activity in patients with electric status epilepticus during sleep. We enrolled patients treated with high-dose oral bedtime diazepam from 2001-2009. We defined spike percentage as the percentage of 1-second bins containing at least one spike, and calculated it during three randomly selected 5-minute...

AIMS Following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), 5-50% of patients will develop posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE) with children being particularly susceptible. Currently, PTE cannot be prevented and there is limited understanding of the underlying epileptogenic mechanisms. We hypothesize that early after TBI the brain undergoes distinct cellular and synaptic reorganization that facilitates cortical ex...

Objective(s):Protective effects of diuretics, particularly of hydrochlorothiazide (HCT), for the development of seizure attacksepilepsy have been described in vivo. However, itsthe mechanism of action of HCT is unknownneeds to be elucidated. Materials and Methods: Extracellular field potentials were recorded from the CA1- and CA3-subfields of the hippocampus of rats. Epileptiform discharges wer...

Brain slices serve as useful models for the investigation of epilepsy. However, the preparation of brain slices disrupts circuitry and severs axons, thus complicating efforts to relate epileptiform activity in vitro to seizure activity in vivo. This issue is relevant to studies in transverse slices of the piriform cortex (PC), the preparation of which disrupts extensive rostrocaudal fiber syste...

More than 80 years after its introduction by Hans Berger, the electroencephalogram (EEG) remains as an important supplementary examination in the investigation of neurological disorders and gives valuable and accurate information about cerebral function. Abnormal EEG findings may include ictal patterns, interictal epileptiform activity and non-epileptiform abnormalities. The aim of this study i...