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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Autonomic Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1559529
Sleep links hippocampal propensity for epileptiform activity to its viscerosensory inputs
Provisionally accepted
Ekaterina Levichkina 1,2
David B. Grayden 3
Steven Petrou 4
Mark J Cook 5
Trichur Raman Vidyasagar 6,7*- 1 The University of Melbourne, Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Parkville, Australia
- 2 Institute for Information Transmission Problems (RAS), Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
- 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia
- 4 Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- 5 Department of Neuroscience, St. Vincent’s Hospital,Universiyt of Melbourne., Melbourne, Australia
- 6 Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- 7 Florey Department of Neuroscience & Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
The development of a seizure relies on two factors. One is the existence of an overexcitable neuronal network and the other is a trigger that switches normal activity of that network into a paroxysmal state. While mechanisms of local overexcitation have been the focus of many studies, the process of triggering remains poorly understood. We suggest that, apart from the known exteroceptive sources of reflex epilepsy such as visual, auditory or olfactory signals, there is a range of interoceptive triggers, which are relevant for seizure development in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE). The hypothesis proposed here aims to explain the prevalence of epileptic activity in sleep and in drowsiness states and to provide a detailed mechanism of seizures triggered by interoceptive signals.
Keywords: vagus, Epilepsy, Circadian Rhythm, Hippocampus, Sleep, ipRGC (intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells)
Received: 13 Jan 2025; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Levichkina, Grayden, Petrou, Cook and Vidyasagar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Trichur Raman Vidyasagar, Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010, Victoria, Australia
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