Propagation of human complex-partial seizures: a correlation analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-4694(91)90095-LGet rights and content

Abstract

Inter- and intrahemispheric propagation of ictal discharges was analysed in 7 epileptic patients having chronic intracranial electrodes. Five had temporal foci and two had frontal mesial foci. Correlation analysis of seizure ddischarge was used to detect the emergence of linear relationships between different structures both intra- and interhemispherically. This analysis included mesial and lateral temporal sites, cingulate gyri, anterior ventral and dorsomedial thalamic nuclei during the discharges of 13 ictal episodes. Correlation between temporal mesial structures was found to be low throughout seizure onset. Propagation of paroxysmal activity through the anterior ventral thalamic nuclei and cingulate gyri was observed in all cases with temporal or frontal mesial focus. Propagation of the discharge from the temporal lateral cortex to the contralateral homologue area was observed with a short delay during 4 complex-partial seizures originating in the temporal lobe. These results show that, even though the commissural pathways may have a role in propagation, it is a relatively unimportant one and they suggest that ictal activity during mesial temporal seizures may spread preferentially through the thalamic nuclei and cortical structures.

References (39)

  • A.D. Anitchkov et al.

    Determination of spatial orientation of basic intracerebral targets in the stereotactic operations of the brain

    Fiziol. Tcheloveka

    (1977)
  • A.D. Anitchkov et al.

    Construction of the multicontact electrodes and the system for its implantation into the human brain

    Fiziol. Tcheloveka

    (1978)
  • J.S. Barlow

    Autocorrelation and crosscorrelation analysis

  • N.P. Bechtereva

    Healthy and Unhealthy Human Brain

    (1980)
  • L. Bossi et al.

    Somatomotor manifestations in temporal lobe seizures

  • S. Demeter et al.

    Interhemispheric pathways of the hippocampal formation, presubiculum, and entorhinal and posterior parahippocampal cortices in the rhesus monkey: the structure and organization of the hippocampal commissures

    J. Comp. Neurol.

    (1985)
  • J. Gotman

    Interhemispheric Relations During Bilateral Spike-and-Wave Activity

    Epilepsia

    (1981)
  • J. Gotman et al.

    Commentary: computer analysis of seizure recordings

  • R. Hassler

    Anatomy of the thalamus

  • Cited by (50)

    • Conversational analysis of consciousness during seizures

      2020, Epilepsy and Behavior
      Citation Excerpt :

      The majority of patients had temporal seizures, and most described their seizures as a perceived loss of consciousness, yet able to describe some aspects of being unconscious. Prior studies suggest that temporal seizures may cause this semi-impaired state of consciousness because of involvement of temporal cortex, the thalamus, and upper brainstem [22–24]. Our findings are consistent; however, we note that temporal seizures, depending on the patient may differentially involve structures involved in the production of consciousness, thus producing different subjective experiences.

    • Interhemispheric microstructural connectivity in bitemporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis

      2015, Cortex
      Citation Excerpt :

      The WM abnormalities in commissural pathways found in this study give support to their role in contralateral seizure propagation. However, the presence of diffuse FA reduction, increased MD and WM volume decrease in other projection or association WM tracts when compared to healthy controls and to TLE+UHS patients, provide evidence of seizure transmission through indirect circuits such as the frontal lobe (orbitofrontal, cingulate) and subcortical routes (the projection fibers of the fornix connecting the hippocampus with septal nuclei and mammillary bodies and their projections to the anterior and midline thalamic nuclei and the midbrain reticular formation and their return projections to mesial temporal structures) (Adam, 2006; Bertashius, 1991; Gloor et al., 1993; Lieb et al., 1987; Wada, 1991). It is conceivable that the abnormal WM volume and DTI values observed here may be related to damage of the axonal pathways involved in seizure ictal spread or to secondary WM loss in connected areas (Diehl et al., 2008).

    • How important is the seizure onset zone for seizure dynamics'

      2015, Seizure
      Citation Excerpt :

      All remaining contacts were assigned to category o (other; 61.7% (0–93.0)). In order to construct functional networks from iEEG recordings, we associated each electrode contact with a network node and defined functional links between any pair of nodes i and j—regardless of their anatomical connectivity—using the cross-correlation function (see Appendix A) as a simple and most commonly used measure for interdependence between two signals.6,34 iEEG data of each window were normalised to zero mean and unit variance.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text