Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 30: Posters II

DY 30.23: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 16:00–18:00, Poster C

Modelling brain activity during absence seizures in the framework of neural field equations — •Cornelia Petrovic and Rudolf Friedrich — Inst. für Theoret. Physik, WWU Münster

During different functional states of the brain, neurons in the thalamus fulfill two different important tasks. During periods of wakefulness, they generate tonic series of spiking, thereby enabling the transfer of incoming sensory signals from the periphery to the cerebral cortex. During periods of sleep, however, the same neurons generate rhythmic-oscillatory burst discharges which are synchronized in the thalamo-cortical network and lead to a dramatic reduction of responsiveness to sensory income. In the electroencephalogram these synchronous discharges are represented by typical sleep waves. Pathological alterations of these mechanisms can lead to epileptic seizures which are associated with reduced consciousness, so-called absence seizures. In the last years several major underlying mechanisms at the molecular level have been identified. In the presented theoretical model we try to bring together those recent molecular experimental (microscopic) results with aspects of well-established (mesoscopic/macroscopic) neural field theories in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the relevance of the different spatio-temporal scales of the brain during the processes of epileptogenesis and seizure generation.