Electric Coupling in Epileptogenesis

One of the hallmarks of epileptiform activity is neural synchrony. There are several putative mechanisms for creating neural synchrony in a neural network including the chemical synaptic actions of decreased inhibition or increased excitation, extracellular ionic and volume shifts, and changes in electric coupling. Electric coupling includes ephaptic electrical field effects and direct interneuronal electrotonic (cable-like) coupling via gap junctions. Electric field coupling is governed by cell morphology, propagation velocity of depolarization waves, the rate of change to the transmembrane voltage, and extracellular resistivity. Such an effect can be approximately represented as a capacitative pathway via the extracellular fields. Gap junctional coupling can be represented by low resistive pathways through the adjacent connexins. ExceHeinnemann llent reviews of electrical interactions between neurons have been published.1–3

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