The effect of external voltage stimulation on absence seizures

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Absence epilepsy (AE) is a systemic disease of the brain, which mainly occurs during childhood and adolescence. The control mechanism is still unclear, and few theoretical studies have been conducted to investigate this. OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we employed external direct voltage stimulation in the subthalamic nucleus to explore mechanisms that inhibit absence seizures. METHODS: All simulation results are obtained by the four-order Runge-Kutta method in the MATLAB environment. The inhibition mechanism can be inferred from the results. RESULTS: We found that the seizures may be inhibited by tuning the strength of the voltage to suitable ranges. This regulation may be achieved through the competition between the inhibitory projections from the basal ganglia to the thalamus. CONCLUSION: Because the mechanism underlying the treatment of epilepsy with a uniform direct current electric field is unclear, we hope that these results can inspire further experimental studies.