Enhanced Phase and Amplitude Synchronization Toward Focal Seizure Offset

Recent studies involving individual neurons in the seizure focal and surrounding areas have established heterogeneous firing patterns in single cells. However, the patterns become more homogeneous approaching the seizure offset. In this article, we show that similar observations are possible from intracranial recording if the right quantitative or engineering techniques are used. We have observed an increase in Hilbert transformation–based phase synchronization in the focal electrocorticoencehalogram (ECoG) in the gamma band (30-40 Hz) towards the end of the majority of focal epileptic seizures. An amplitude correlation measure shows an enhanced principal component (and hence enhanced correlation among the channels involved) approaching the offset of the large majority of seizures. Surprisingly, there are seizures which show the enhanced phase synchronization approaching offset but no enhanced amplitude correlation during the same period and vice versa. This study shows that suitable computational tools can sometimes compensate for more expensive and technologically demanding data acquisition systems. A possible neurophysiological explanation behind the observed phenomenon is also presented.

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