Control of absence epilepsy seizures in specific relay nuclei of thalamus

[摘要] In this paper, we used a classic basal ganglia-corticothalamic model(BGCT) to study the onset and control mechanism of absence epilepsy in specific relay nuclei (SRN) of thalamus. It was found that the seizure state may appear in SRN by turning the coupling strength -nu(sr) and signal transmission delay tau on the route Thalamic reticular nuclei (TRN) of thalamus -> SRN. With increasing of -nu(sr) the seizure state appeared two times, and its onset mechanism has not been discussed in previous studies. The seizure activity can be well controlled by adjusting the activation level of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) in basal ganglia, which is a main output tissue to the corticothalamic system through two direct inhibitory pathways SNr -> SRN and SNr -> TRN in our model. We found that the interesting bidirectional regulation phenomenon appeared as considering the single pathway SNr -> SRN and SNr -> TRN, or when they coexisted in one network, the mechanism of which is also different from some previous theoretical studies. At last, we pointed out that the mechanism obtained above can also explain the onset and control of the poly-spikes slow wave appeared in SRN by turning tau to large enough. Therefore, the results in the paper will further deepen our understanding of the generation and control mechanism of epilepsy disease. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

[发布日期] 2017-12-21

[关键词] Spike-and-slow wave discharges;Basal ganglia-thalamocortical network;SRN;Onset and control