Skip to main content
Browse by:
GROUP

Circuit dissection in thalamocortical systems, with relevance to epilepsy and sleep

Event Image
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
John Huguenard; hosted by Nicole Calakos
Neurobiology Invited Seminar Series

The thalamocortical system is a large forebrain network organizing sensory processing, attention, arousal, and some aspects of higher-order integration. The thalamic subnetwork is tuned to perform these functions through specific participation of relatively small number of specialized neuronal cell types interconnected through specific synaptic partnerships. While seemingly simple, the thalamus is susceptible to a number of injury related or genetic deficits that drive the network into a hypersynchronous state that can cause seizures, especially generalized absence epilepsy. Our studies have shown how alterations in gene expression, most recently Scn8a, encoding the Nav1.6 voltage-gated sodium channel, alter specific neural circuit elements in the thalamus that lead to axonal dysfunction and dynamic break-down of key inhibitory pathways leading to seizures, and presumably some of the cognitive deficits occurring in people with epilepsy.

Contact: Nicole Calakos