Circadian distribution of epileptiform discharges in epilepsy: candidate mechanisms of variability
Authors: Marinelli Isabella , Walker Jamie J. , Seneviratne Udaya , D’Souza Wendyl , Cook Mark J. , Anderson Clare , Bagshaw Andrew P. , Lightman Stafford L. , Woldman Wessel , Terry John R. 
Published: August 2022

Epilepsy is a serious neurological disorder characterised by a tendency to have recurrent, spontaneous, seizures. Classically, seizures are assumed to occur at random. However, recent research has uncovered underlying rhythms both in seizures and in key signatures of epilepsy - so-called interictal epileptiform activity - with timescales that vary from hours and days through to months. Understanding the physiological mechanisms that determine these rhythmic patterns of epileptiform discharges remains an open question. Many people with epilepsy identify precipitants of their seizures, the most common of which include stress, sleep deprivation and fatigue. To quantify the impact of these physiological factors, we analysed 24-hour EEG recordings from a cohort of 107 people with idiopathic generalized epilepsy. We found two subgroups with distinct distributions of epileptiform discharges: one with highest incidence during sleep and the other during day-time. We interrogated these data using a mathematical model that describes the transitions between background and epileptiform activity in large-scale brain networks. This model was extended to include a time-dependent forcing term, where the excitability of nodes within the network could be modulated by other factors. We calibrated this forcing term using independently-collected human cortisol (the primary stress-responsive hormone characterised by circadian and ultradian patterns of secretion) data and sleep-staged EEG from healthy human participants. We found that either the dynamics of cortisol or sleep stage transition, or a combination of both, could explain most of the observed distributions of epileptiform discharges. Our findings provide conceptual evidence for the existence of underlying physiological drivers of rhythms of epileptiform discharges. These findings should motivate future research to explore these mechanisms in carefully designed experiments using animal models or people with epilepsy.

Author summary

65 million people have epilepsy worldwide. Many of these people report specific triggers that make their seizures (the primary symptom of epilepsy) more likely. Here, we use a mathematical model to understand the relationship between possible triggers and rhythms in epileptiform activity observed across the day.

The mathematical model describes the activity of connected brain regions, and how the excitability of these regions can change in response to different stimuli. Based on data collected from people with idiopathic generalized epilepsy, we identify transitions between sleep stages and variation in concentration of the stress-hormone cortisol as candidate factors that influence how likely it is for epileptiform activity to occur. By including those factors into the model, we show they can explain most of the daily variability. More broadly, our approach provides a framework for better understanding what factors drive the occurrence of epileptiform activity and offers the potential to suggest experiments that can validate model predictions.