Orcadian Aspects of Epileptic Behavior in Comparative Psychophysiology

Abstract

This paper is concerned with some experimental and clinical problems regarding the circadian chronobiology of epilepsy. Rhythmometrically analyzed, the temporal fluctuations of seizure susceptibility tend to indicate that epileptic events are circadian stage-dependent processes whose chronobiologic characteristics are possibly predictable on the basis of mathematical models. As an integrative discipline in physiology and psychology, behavioral chronobiology renders possible the discovery of new regulation processes concerning the central mechanisms of epilepsy. In this respect, the circadian psychophysiological patterns of epilepsy express dynamical biological systems which suggest some intermodulating endogenous processes between vigilance level and seizure susceptibility. Moreover, such chronobiologic studies applied to epileptic behavior suggest the development of new heuristic aspects in the field of comparative psychophysiology.