Low-Frequency Electrical Stimulation in Epilepsy: a Biophysical and\nMathematical Representation

Abstrakt

The biological mechanisms underlying the recurring seizures in the epileptic brain remain poorly understood. As a consequence of that, a substantial proportion of epilepsy patients cannot be sufficiently treated by currently available treatment options. Newly developed brain stimulation protocols have been shown to successfully reduce the seizure rate (1,2). However, their success critically depends on chosen stimulation parameters, such as the time point, amplitude and frequency of stimulation. This study focuses on the seizure delaying effect of 1 Hz stimulation in an animal model of epilepsy. We study this effect using a computational model, a modified version of the so-called Epileptor-2 model (3), in close comparison with a real dataset of local field potential recordings from four hippocampal rat brain slices under high potassium condition. The Epileptor-2 model describes the dynamics of population potential, synaptic resources, potassium and sodium ions.