{"id":102,"date":"2020-01-20T17:20:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T17:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/139.91.162.68\/?p=102"},"modified":"2022-09-06T08:27:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T08:27:26","slug":"102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dendrites.gr\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"Uncovering the mechanisms of spatial deficits in epilepsy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Epilepsy\u2019s impact is not limited to\u00a0seizure events<\/strong><\/p>\n

While most seizures resolve spontaneously after a few minutes, the long-term impact can be rather grim if the condition goes untreated. Significant memory and executive function deficits often ensue, taking a toll on patients’ daily lives.<\/p>\n

This is no surprise since the most common diagnosis for epilepsy involves the temporal lobes of the brain, and hippocampus in particular. Hippocampus has long been known to support memory acquisition and recall, as well as navigation in physical and mental space.<\/p>\n

What is less apparent, however, is the role and implications of large-scale circuit re-organisation that follows a seizure event. We do know for a fact there\u2019s extensive neuronal death leading to substantial reconfiguration of axonal connectivity patterns. But without a clear picture, it\u2019s difficult to formulate a comprehensive description of the pathology at the single-cell and circuit level.<\/p>\n

Shedding light on epilepsy-induced memory deficits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our new collaborative\u00a0study<\/a>, published in\u00a0Nature Neuroscience<\/em>, illuminates crucial aspects of this matter. Building upon experimental results collected by our collaborators, post-doc researcher Dr. Chavlis and doctoral student Ioanna Pandi propose that signal transmission reliability is of paramount importance.<\/p>\n

In specific, Spiros and Ioanna developed a model of the hippocampus that can simulate the following conditions:<\/p>\n