Epilepsy: Ever-changing states of cortical excitability

Abstract

It has been proposed that the underlying epileptic process is mediated by changes in both excitatory and inhibitory circuits leading to the formation of hyper-excitable seizure networks. In this review we aim to shed light on the many physiological factors that modulate excitability within these networks. These factors have been discussed extensively in many reviews each as a separate entity and cannot be extensively covered in a single manuscript. Thus for the purpose of this work in which we aim to bring those factors together to explain how they interact with epilepsy, we only provide brief descriptions. We present reported evidence supporting the existence of the epileptic brain in several states; interictal, peri-ictal and ictal, each with distinct excitability features. We then provide an overview of how many physiological factors influence the excitatory/inhibitory balance within the interictal state, where the networks are presumed to be functioning normally. We conclude that these changes result in constantly changing states of cortical excitability in patients with epilepsy.