Sleep spindles in rats with absence epilepsy

Abstract

Absence epilepsy is an idiopathic generalized non-convulsive type of epilepsy associated with aberrant activity in the thalamocortical network. The common neuronal network mechanism of spike–wave discharges (a manifestation of absence epilepsy) and sleep spindles suggests a close relationship between them. This paper overviews electroencephalographic (EEG) properties of anterior sleep spindles in a genetic Wistar Albino Glaxo from Rijswijk (WAG/Rij) rat model of absence epilepsy. Epileptic discharges in WAG/Rij rats appear spontaneously, and their incidence increases with age. In epileptic rats, time–frequency profile of sleep spindles distinguished from that in non-epileptic subjects by shorter duration, lower intraspindle frequency, and contained less slow-wave components, etc. Some pro-epileptic modifications of spindle activity can also be observed in EEG in epileptic WAG/Rij rats.