RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Critical slowing as a biomarker for seizure susceptibility
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 689893
DO 10.1101/689893
A1 Matias I. Maturana
A1 Christian Meisel
A1 Katrina Dell
A1 Philippa J. Karoly
A1 Wendyl D’Souza
A1 David B. Grayden
A1 Anthony N. Burkitt
A1 Premysl Jiruska
A1 Jan Kudlacek
A1 Jaroslav Hlinka
A1 Mark J. Cook
A1 Levin Kuhlmann
A1 Dean R. Freestone
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/07/02/689893.abstract
AB The human brain has the capacity to rapidly change state, and in epilepsy these state changes can be catastrophic, resulting in loss of consciousness, injury and even death. Theoretical interpretations considering the brain as a dynamical system would suggest that prior to a seizure recorded brain signals may exhibit critical slowing, a warning signal preceding many critical transitions in dynamical systems. Using long-term intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) recordings from fourteen patients with focal epilepsy, we found key signatures of critical slowing prior to seizures. Signals related to a critically slowing process fluctuated over temporally long scales (hours to days), longer than would be detectable in standard clinical evaluation settings. Seizure risk was associated with a combination of these signals together with epileptiform discharges. These results provide strong validation of theoretical models and demonstrate that critical slowing is a reliable indicator that could be used in seizure forecasting algorithms.