On-demand optogenetic control of spontaneous seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy

Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common type of epilepsy in adults, is often medically refractory, and due to broad actions and long-time scales, current systemic treatments have major negative side-effects. However, temporal lobe seizures tend to arise from discrete regions before overt clinical behaviour, making temporally and spatially specific treatment theoretically possible. Here we report the arrest of spontaneous seizures using a real-time, closed-loop, response system and in vivo optogenetics in a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Either optogenetic inhibition of excitatory principal cells, or activation of a subpopulation of GABAergic cells representing

• EF
  Epilepsy Foundation
• GE
  George E. Hewitt Foundation for Medical Research
• FP
  Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale
• NI
  National Institutes of Health