Faculty Collaboration Database

Neuronal bursting properties in focal and parafocal regions in pediatric neocortical epilepsy stratified by histology. J Clin Neurophysiol 2010 Dec;27(6):387-97

Date

11/16/2010

Pubmed ID

21076335

DOI

10.1097/WNP.0b013e3181fe06d8

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that focal and parafocal neocortical tissue from pediatric patients with intractable epilepsy exhibits cellular and synaptic differences, the authors characterized the propensity of these neurons to generate (a) voltage-dependent bursting and (b) synaptically driven paroxysmal depolarization shifts. Neocortical slices were prepared from tissue resected from patients with intractable epilepsy. Multiunit network activity and simultaneous whole-cell patch recordings were made from neurons from three patient groups: (1) those with normal histology; (2) those with mild and severe cortical dysplasia; and (3) those with abnormal pathology but without cortical dysplasia. Seizure-like activity was characterized by population bursting with concomitant bursting in intracellularly recorded cortical neurons (n = 59). The authors found significantly more N-methyl-D-aspartic acid-driven voltage-dependent bursting neurons in focal versus parafocal tissue in patients with severe cortical dysplasia (P < 0.01). Occurrence of paroxysmal depolarization shifts and burst amplitude and burst duration were significantly related to tissue type: focal or parafocal (P < 0.05). The authors show that functional differences between focal and parafocal tissue in patients with severe cortical dysplasia exist. There are functional differences between patient groups with different histology, and bursting properties can be significantly associated with the distinction between focal and parafocal tissue.

Author List

Marcuccilli CJ, Tryba AK, van Drongelen W, Koch H, Viemari JC, Peña-Ortega F, Doren EL, Pytel P, Chevalier M, Mrejeru A, Kohrman MH, Lasky RE, Lew SM, Frim DM, Ramirez JM

Authors

Erin L. Doren MD Associate Professor in the Plastic Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Sean Lew MD Chief, Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Action Potentials
Adolescent
Bicuculline
Child
Child, Preschool
Electric Stimulation
Epilepsy
Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists
Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists
Female
GABA-A Receptor Antagonists
Humans
In Vitro Techniques
Male
N-Methylaspartate
Neocortex
Neurons
Patch-Clamp Techniques
Phosphopyruvate Hydratase
Piperazines