Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Dec 2012
Editorial CommentFamilial ALS: less common than we think?
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Dec 2012
ReviewLarge scale brain models of epilepsy: dynamics meets connectomics.
The brain is in a constant state of dynamic change, for example switching between cognitive and behavioural tasks, and between wakefulness and sleep. The brains of people with epilepsy have additional features to their dynamic repertoire, particularly the paroxysmal occurrence of seizures. Substantial effort over decades has produced a detailed description of many human epilepsies and of specific seizure types; in some instances there are known causes, sometimes highly specific such as single gene mutations, but the mechanisms of seizure onset and termination are not known. ⋯ These models are typically simplified, leaving a need to scale up these models to the large scale brain networks in which seizures become manifest. The emerging science of connectomics provides an approach to understanding the large scale brain networks in which normal and abnormal brain functions operate. The stage is now set to couple dynamics with connectomics, to reveal the abnormal dynamics of brain networks which allow seizures to occur.