Recent studies have demonstrated an important role for the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) in epilepsy. NMDARs have also been shown to play a critical role in hyperexcitability associated with several animal models of human epilepsy. Using whole-cell voltage clamp recordings in brain slices, we studied evoked paroxysmal discharges in the freeze-lesion model of neocortical microgyria. The ...

Peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a nuclear hormone receptor whose agonist, rosiglitazone has a neuroprotective effect to hippocampal neurons in pilocarpine-induced seizures. Hippocampal slice preparations treated in Mg2+ free medium can induce ictal and interictal-like epileptiform discharges, which is regarded as an in vitro model of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) rece...

BACKGROUND Continuous EEG recordings (cEEGs) are increasingly used in evaluation of acutely ill adults. Pre-screening using compressed data formats, such as compressed spectral array (CSA), may accelerate EEG review. We tested whether screening with CSA can enable detection of seizures and other relevant patterns. METHODS Two individuals reviewed the CSA displays of 113 cEEGs. While blinded t...

Clinical and electrographic data were reviewed on 2 of our patients with orbitofrontal epilepsy who were seizure free at 5-year follow-up, and on 2 similar patients from the literature. One of our patients was lesional, and the other was nonlesional. Interictal EEG discharges were lateralized to the side of invasively recorded orbitofrontal seizures in the nonlesional case. In this case, no cli...

Glutamate activates a class of receptors coupled to G-proteins that initiate second messenger cascades, change ion channel function, cause release of calcium from intracellular stores, and produce long-term changes in synaptic strength. We used the CA3 region of the adult rat hippocampal slice to evaluate group I metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) activation on epileptiform activity and th...

Saikosaponin a (SSa), a main constituent of the Chinese herb Bupleurum chinense DC., has been demonstrated to have antiepileptic activity. Recent studies have shown that SSa could inhibit NMDA receptor current and persistent sodium current. However, the effects of SSa on potassium (K(+)) currents remain unclear. In this study, we tested the effect of SSa on 4AP-induced epileptiform discharges a...

INTRODUCTION The different syndromes included in the idiopathic generalized epilepsies present an important overlapping of their electroclinical characteristics. AIM To compare the two actual classifications (International classification of epileptic syndromes: ILAE of 1989 and of 2001) in a sample of patients with idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE) and to evaluate which electro-clinical f...

PURPOSE To demonstrate the significance of simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) recording during 2-deoxy-2-[(18)F] fluoro-D-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) in childhood partial epilepsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS We included 46 children with partial epilepsy who underwent simultaneous EEG during PET. We compared the epileptogenic area of several EEG features including epilep...

Stimulation of group I mGluRs elicits several forms of translation-dependent neuronal plasticity including epileptogenesis. The translation process underlying plasticity induction is controlled by repressors including the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). In the absence of FMRP-mediated repression, a condition that occurs in a mouse model (Fmr1(-/-)) of fragile X syndrome, group I mG...