Suppressing Electric-Field Coupled Epileptiform Activity
By: Cedric Levi, C.C. Chiang, Usman Nyallay, Simon Livshits, Dominique M. Durand
Medial-temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common focal epilepsy, characterized by seizures originating from a hyperexcitable focal zone. While prevalent, the mechanisms of signal generation and propagation remain unclear. Prior studies showed epileptic activity can propagate non-synaptically across tissue cuts via electric field (EF) coupling, driven by synchronous pyramidal neuron firing. To take advantage of this phenomenon, we have a "Faraday cage " concept using perforated, 20um thick conductive metal films to short-circuit this electric field and effectively block EF-coupled propagation in hippocampal mouse slices.
Article Date
October 28, 2025