Interictal discharges spread along local recurrent networks between tubers and surrounding cortex

Abstract

The presence of interictal epileptiform discharges on electroencephalography (EEG) may indicate increased epileptic seizure risk and on invasive EEG are the signature of the irritative zone. In highly epileptogenic lesions -such as cortical tubers in tuberous sclerosis -these discharges can be recorded with intracranial stereotactic EEG as part of the evaluation for epilepsy surgery. Yet the network mechanisms that underwrite the generation and spread of these discharges remain poorly understood, limiting their current diagnostic use. Here, we investigate the dynamics of interictal epileptiform discharges using a combination of quantitative analysis of invasive EEG recordings and mesoscale neural mass modelling of cortical dynamics. We first characterise spatially organised local dynamics of discharges recorded from 36 separate tubers in 8 patients with tuberous sclerosis. We characterise these dynamics with a set of competing explanatory network models using dynamic causal modelling. Bayesian model comparison of plausible network architectures suggests that the recurrent coupling between neuronal populations within -and adjacent to -the tuber core explains the travelling wave dynamics observed in these patient recordings. Our results -based on interictal activity -unify competing theories about the pathological organisation of epileptic foci and surrounding cortex in patients with tuberous sclerosis. Coupled oscillator dynamics have previously been used to describe ictal activity, where fast travelling ictal discharges are commonly observed within the recruited seizure network. The interictal data analysed here add the insight that this functional architecture is already established in the interictal state. This links observations of interictal EEG abnormalities directly to pathological network coupling in epilepsy, with possible implications for epilepsy surgery approaches in tuberous sclerosis. Significance StatementInterictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) are clinically important markers of an epileptic brain. Here we link local IED spread to network coupling through a combination of clinical recordings in paediatric patients with tuberous sclerosis complex, quantitative EEG analysis of interictal discharges spread, and Bayesian inference on coupled neural mass model parameters. We show that the kinds of interictal discharges seen in our patients require recurrent local network coupling extending beyond the putative seizure focus and that in fact only those recurrent coupled networks can support seizurelike and interictal dynamics when run in simulation. Our findings provide a novel integrated perspective on emergent epileptic dynamics in human patients.

Single unit-derived connectivity networks in tuberous sclerosis complex reveal propensity for network hypersynchrony driven by tuber-tuber interactions

“…This concept of the tuber core driving the dynamics has also been shown in a dynamic causal modelling study, which showed that ictal and interictal dynamics were best supported by a model where an impulse was triggered at the tuber core. 25 This is supported by another single patient single unit study which showed a gradient of epileptogenicity within tubers, with more neurons being modulated by interictal epileptiform discharges in the tuber compared to the periphery. 26 Together, these works support a complex interaction within and between tubers that needs to be considered before deciding on treatment strategies including surgical resection of potentially epileptogenic tubers.…”

Multi-scale modelling of the epileptic brain: advantages of computational therapy exploration

“…Resting state EEG can be used to construct a computational biomarker of idiopathic generalized epilepsy for the diagnostic process, which can be inferred from the extent of synchrony between EEG channels and the normalized power spectrum of the clinical data [102]. Recent work using network control theory and dynamic causal modelling provides a new perspective of analysing data and simulating epileptic brains as a whole network [103,104].…”

Multimodalin vivorecording using transparent graphene microelectrodes illuminates spatiotemporal seizure dynamics at the microscale

“…Observing seizures at this new scale has led to the idea that the cortical areas involved can be divided into a core territory of recruited neurons (the 'ictal core'), surrounded by areas that receive intense synaptic input but do not show hypersynchrony and pathologically high firing rates (the 'ictal penumbra'). Observations at the microscale have also revealed previously unobserved temporal phenomena at play during epileptic seizures: individual ictal and interictal epileptiform discharges observed on intracranial EEG (iEEG) can spread near-synchronously across macroscopic brain areas 8,9 . In contrast, microscale neurophysiological markers of the so-called 'ictal wavefront' spread locally at much slower speeds, typically not exceeding ~5 mm/s 10 .…”