Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 6;14(1):20881. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-71885-3.
For patients with epilepsy, one of the biggest problems is the unpredictability of the time when the next seizure will occur. Interestingly, some epileptic patients experience a sensory sensation preceding seizures, called aura, which helps them move to safety before a seizure. Here, we describe the development of the first animal model of auras, which could allow for a more detailed study of this phenomenon. Specifically, in mice, we presented sensory stimuli (sound and light cues) a few seconds before kindling an animal to induce seizures. Animals were kindled by electrical stimulation in the basolateral amygdalar nucleus. Over the course of stimulation sessions, animals started showing progressively stronger freezing behavior to sensory cues preceding kindling. Interestingly, seizures are known to cause retrograde amnesia, thus it was surprising that the association between seizures and preceding sensory cues developed in all experimental animals. In summary, our experiments show that similarly to auras, a sensory sensation can be associated with incoming generalized seizures and is not erased by retrograde amnesia.
对于癫痫患者来说，最大的问题之一是无法预测下一次癫痫发作的时间。有趣的是，一些癫痫患者在癫痫发作前会出现一种感觉，称为先兆，这有助于他们在癫痫发作前转移到安全的地方。在这里，我们描述了第一个癫痫先兆动物模型的发展，这可以让我们更详细地研究这一现象。具体来说，我们在小鼠中，在点燃动物引发癫痫之前几秒钟，给予感觉刺激（声音和光提示）。动物通过在外侧杏仁核核团进行电刺激来引发癫痫。在刺激过程中，动物开始对即将引发癫痫的感觉提示表现出逐渐增强的冻结行为。有趣的是，众所周知，癫痫发作会导致逆行性遗忘，因此，令人惊讶的是，所有实验动物的癫痫发作和之前的感觉提示之间的联系都得到了发展。总之，我们的实验表明，与先兆类似，一种感觉可以与即将到来的全身性癫痫发作相关联，并且不会被逆行性遗忘抹去。
