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Silent hippocampal seizures and spikes identified by foramen ovale electrodes in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

We directly assessed mesial temporal activity using intracranial foramen ovale electrodes in two patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) without a history or EEG evidence of seizures. We detected clinically silent hippocampal seizures and epileptiform spikes during sleep, a period when these abnormalities were most likely to interfere with memory consolidation. The findings in these index cases support a model in which early development of occult hippocampal hyperexcitability may contribute to the pathogenesis of AD.

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Figure 1: Subclinical mTL seizures and spikes captured with FO electrodes in two patients with AD.
Figure 2: mTL spikes detected on FO electrodes are absent from scalp EEG recordings.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH-NINDS R25-NS065743 (A.D.L.), the Massachusetts General Hospital Executive Committee on Research (A.D.L.), NIH-NINDS U01-NS090362 (A.G.), Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (A.G.), NIH-NINDS R01-NS029709 (J.N.), and the Blue Bird Circle Foundation (J.N.).

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A.D.L., G.D., A.G., E.N.E., J.N., and A.J.C. drafted and edited the manuscript. A.D.L., G.D., and A.G. prepared the figures. A.D.L. performed the spike quantification. A.G. performed the genetic analysis. A.J.C. and J.N. conceived the study.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew J Cole.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Note and Supplementary Figures 1,2 (PDF 885 kb)

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Lam, A., Deck, G., Goldman, A. et al. Silent hippocampal seizures and spikes identified by foramen ovale electrodes in Alzheimer's disease. Nat Med 23, 678–680 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4330

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