The Journal of Neuroscience, December 15, 1999, 19(24):10738-10746
Sustained Plateau Activity Precedes and Can Generate Ictal-Like
Discharges in Low-Cl
Medium in Slices from Rat Piriform
Cortex
Rezan
Demir,
Lewis B.
Haberly, and
Meyer B.
Jackson
Departments of Physiology and Anatomy and Center for Neuroscience,
University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Interictal and ictal discharges represent two different forms of
abnormal brain activity associated with epilepsy. Ictal discharges closely parallel seizure activity, but depending on the form of epilepsy, interictal discharges may or may not be correlated with the
frequency, severity, and location of seizures. Recent voltage-imaging studies in slices of piriform cortex indicated that interictal-like discharges are generated in a two-stage process. The first stage consists of a sustained, low-amplitude depolarization (plateau activity) lasting the entire latent period prior to discharge onset.
Plateau activity takes place at a site distinct from the site of
discharge onset and serves to sustain and amplify activity initiated by
an electrical stimulus. In the second stage a rapidly accelerating
depolarization begins at the onset site and then spreads over a wide
region. Here, we asked whether ictal-like discharges can be generated
in a similar two-stage process. As with interictal-like activity, the
first sign of an impending ictal-like discharge is a sustained
depolarization with a plateau-like time course. The rapidly
accelerating depolarization that signals the start of the actual
discharge develops later at a separate onset site. As found previously
with interictal-like discharges, local application of kynurenic acid to
the plateau site blocked ictal-like discharges throughout the entire
slice. However, in marked contrast to interictal-like activity,
blockade of synaptic transmission at the onset site failed to block the
ictal-like discharge. This indicates that interictal- and ictal-like
discharges share a common pathway in the earliest stage of their
generation and that their mechanisms subsequently diverge.
Key words:
epilepsy; epileptiform activity; ictal activity; voltage
imaging; piriform cortex; glutamate receptors
Copyright © 1999 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/99/192410738-09$05.00/0