Whole-brain Preclinical Study Illuminates How Epileptic Seizures Originate
Published:21 Apr.2022 Source:Weill Cornell Medicine
New evidence from a zebrafish model of epilepsy may help resolve a debate into how seizures originate, according to Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. The findings may also be useful in the discovery and development of future epilepsy drugs.
In the study, published Feb. 23 in Brain, the researchers were able to track the activities of neurons throughout the entire brains of larval zebrafish during seizures. They showed that the seizures originated from an excess of "excitatory" over "inhibitory" brain cell activity in relatively confined regions of the brain and spread only when they overcame strong inhibitory activity in surrounding regions.