Abstract
Large-scale brain networks are increasingly recognized as important for the generation of seizures in epilepsy. However, how a network evolves from a healthy state through the process of epileptogenesis remains unclear. To address this question, here, we study longitudinal epicranial background EEG recordings (30 electrodes, EEG free from epileptiform activity) of a mouse model of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. We analyze functional connectivity networks and observe that over the time course of epileptogenesis the networks become increasingly asymmetric. Furthermore, computational modelling reveals that a set of nodes, located outside of the region of initial insult, emerges as particularly important for the network dynamics. These findings are consistent with experimental observations, thus demonstrating that ictogenic mechanisms can be revealed on the EEG, that computational models can be used to monitor unfolding epileptogenesis and that both the primary focus and epileptic network play a role in epileptogenesis.
Footnotes
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
This work was supported by Epilepsy Research UK via grant P1505 (“An optimal model for focal onset epilepsies”) to P.S., L.S., C.M.M., M.P.R., J.R.T., and MG; by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant 323530-158125) to L.S.; by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to M.P.R.; by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant 320030-159705), by the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) “SYNAPSY”, and by the CIBM from Geneva and Lausanne to C.M.M.; by the Foundation Ernst et Lucie Schmidheiny and by the Swiss League Against Epilepsy to C.Q.; by the Medical Research Council via grant MR/K013998/1 to M.G., M.P.R., and J.R.T.; by the EPSRC via grant EP/N014391/1 to M.P.R. and J.R.T; and by Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Awards (204909/Z/16/Z and WT105618MA) to P.S., M.G., and J.R.T .
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
In this issue
