Institute of Applied Mathematics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, CAS center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China.
Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 21;8(1):4953. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23280-y.
In this paper, we use a model modified from classic corticothalamic network(CT) to explore the mechanism of absence seizures appearing on specific relay nuclei (SRN) of the thalamus. It is found that typical seizure states appear on SRN through tuning several critical connection strengths in the model. In view of previous experimental and theoretical works which were mainly on epilepsy seizure phenomena appearing on excitatory pyramidal neurons (EPN) of the cortex, this is a novel model to consider the seizure observed on thalamus. In particular, the onset mechanism is different from previous theoretical studies. Inspired by some previous clinical and experimental studies, we employ the external stimuli voltage on EPN and SRN in the network, and observe that the seizure can be well inhibited by tuning the stimulus intensity appropriately. We further explore the effect of the signal transmission delays on seizures, and found that the polyspike phenomenon appears only when the delay is sufficiently large. The experimental data also confirmed our model. Since there is a complex network in the brain and all organizations are interacting closely with each other, the results obtained in this paper provide not only biological insights into the regulatory mechanisms but also a reference for the prevention and treatment of epilepsy in future.
在本文中，我们使用了一个对经典皮质丘脑网络（CT）进行修正的模型，来探索丘脑特定中继核（SRN）上出现的失神发作的机制。研究发现，通过调整模型中几个关键连接强度，典型的发作状态会出现在 SRN 上。鉴于以前的实验和理论工作主要集中在皮层兴奋性锥体神经元（EPN）上出现的癫痫发作现象，这是一个新颖的模型，可以考虑到在丘脑上观察到的发作。特别是，其起始机制与以前的理论研究不同。受一些先前临床和实验研究的启发，我们在网络中对 EPN 和 SRN 施加外部刺激电压，并观察到通过适当调整刺激强度可以很好地抑制发作。我们进一步探讨了信号传输延迟对发作的影响，发现只有当延迟足够大时才会出现多棘波现象。实验数据也证实了我们的模型。由于大脑中有一个复杂的网络，所有的组织都在紧密地相互作用，因此本文的研究结果不仅为调控机制提供了生物学见解，而且为未来预防和治疗癫痫提供了参考。
