Usually we think that pathologies, as epilepsy, are associated to disruptions of the neural circuit mediating function. These disruptions certainly exist and are related e.g. to seizure events, which are rare and transient events. On the contrary, comorbidities, such as cognitive deficits, which often accompany epilepsies, constitute a basal state. This suggests that neural dynamics, in particular those supporting cognitive function, are altered in a permanent manner in epilepsy.
In this Journal of Neuroscience paper, in collaboration with Wesley Clawson (Tufts U), Pascale Quilichini and Chrisophe Bernard (Marseille), we test the hypothesis that primitive processes of information processing at the core of cognitive function (i.e., storage and sharing of information) are altered in the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex in experimental epilepsy in adult, male Wistar rats. In other words, we focus on « algorithmic alterations » (considering coordinated patterns of neuronal activity as providing an emergent assembler language for raw primitive computation).
We find that information storage and sharing are organized into substates across the stereotypic states of slow and theta oscillations in both epilepsy and control conditions. However, their internal composition and organization through time are disrupted in epilepsy, partially losing brain state selectivity compared with controls, and shifting toward a regimen of disorder.
We propose that the alteration of information processing at this algorithmic level of computation, the theoretical intermediate level between structure and function, may be a mechanism behind the emergent and widespread comorbidities associated with epilepsy, and perhaps other disorders.
To know more:
- Clawson, W., Waked, B., Madec, T., Ghestem, A., Quilichini, P.P., Battaglia, D., and Bernard, C. (2023). Perturbed information processing complexity in experimental epilepsy. J. Neurosci., JN-RM-0383-23. 10.1523/jneurosci.0383-23.2023.