Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-8-2021

Publication Title

Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience

Keywords

epilepsy, epileptic seizures, epileptogensis, small-world networks, simulation—computers, neuron, criticality, phase transition

ISSN

1662-5188

Volume

14

Issue/No.

583350

Abstract

Healthy brain function is marked by neuronal network dynamics at or near the critical phase, which separates regimes of instability and stasis. A failure to remain at this critical point can lead to neurological disorders such as epilepsy, which is associated with pathological synchronization of neuronal oscillations. Using full Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) simulations on a Small-World Network, we are able to generate synthetic electroencephalogram (EEG) signals with intervals corresponding to seizure (ictal) or non-seizure (interictal) states that can occur based on the hyperexcitability of the artificial neurons and the strength and topology of the synaptic connections between them. These interictal simulations can be further classified into scale-free critical phases and disjoint subcritical exponential phases. By changing the HH parameters, we can model seizures due to a variety of causes, including traumatic brain injury (TBI), congenital channelopathies, and idiopathic etiologies, as well as the effects of anticonvulsant drugs. The results of this work may be used to help identify parameters from actual patient EEG or electrocorticographic (ECoG) data associated with ictogenesis, as well as generating simulated data for training machine-learning seizure prediction algorithms.

Comments

This work was supported by Nova Southeastern University President's Faculty Research and Development Grant #335472. The publication fee was funded by the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.3389/fncom.2020.583350

Peer Reviewed

COinS