Finding Improved Protocols for Using Deep-Brain Stimulation for Treating Epileptic Seizures in Rats

Abstract

Epilepsy, a neural disorder marked by seizures, affects millions of people and is a tremendous reason for distress in the lives of epileptic patients and their loved ones. There are many ways to treat epilepsy such as antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), surgery, and devices like the Vagus Nerve Stimulator. Regardless, the aforementioned methods of treatment are not efficient enough because they do not target the main source of the disorder. In order to target the main source, the natural dynamics of the brain that are effected by seizures need to be understood and this can be done by stimulating seizures in Sprague Dawley rats and analyzing their local field potentials during seizures and comparing the extracted data to real-time videos of the rats while having seizures for verification. Also, histological analysis will enhance this understanding. By doing this, the most effective frequency for the therapeutic stimulation can be found and this can be used to mitigate and, ideally, terminate seizures. This verification will be necessary to move
on to the future steps which entail the integration of the edited videos with electroencephalogram (EEG). The extracted data and real-time videos should correspond with the EEG. This will aid in the preparation for the next group of rat subjects.