Table 1.
Experimental treatment groups and terminology of EEG patterns
| Table 1A. Experimental treatment groups | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treatment group | Age of treatment | Treatments | Spasms (PN4-13) |
N |
| DLP (all) | Combination of DLP and DLP-ETP rats (see next cells) | Yes | 12 male | |
| - DLP | PN3 | Doxorubicin (5μg/2.5μl in saline, right i.c.v.) LPS (3μg/1.5μl in saline, R.i.c.) |
Yes | 7 male |
| PN5 | p-chlorophenylalanine (200mg/kg, i.p.) | |||
| - DLP-ETP | PN3 and PN5 | Same as DLP | Yes |
5 male |
| PN4–6 | ETP vehicle given i.p. once daily, equal volume as rapamycin treatment | |||
| DLP-RAP633 | PN3 and PN5 | Same as DLP induction | Yes | 10 male |
| PN4–6 | Rapamycin given i.p. once daily, 6mg/kg on PN4, 3mg/kg on PN5 and PN6 | |||
| Sham | PN3 | Saline (1.5μl, right intraparietal) | No | 8 male |
| Controls | No early life handling or surgery | Not monitored (*) | 11 male | |
| Table 1B. EEG pattern terminology | |
|---|---|
| Motor-type seizure1 | Stereotypical patterns that disrupt the background, with evolution in field, frequencies, or amplitude, consist of a mixture of rhythmic activities and/or spikes or polyspikes, > 10 sec, that were associated with or were similar to seizures with motor manifestations |
| Early seizure onset patterns | First changes of EEG from the baseline during a seizure |
| Late seizure onset patterns | Follow the early seizure onset patterns and precede the generalized rhythmic spikes and seizure activity |
| Low voltage fast (LVF) | Low amplitude beta (>13 Hz) activity that was visibly different than the background |
| High amplitude alpha bursts (HA a bursts) | Alpha bursts with higher amplitude and field and more sharply contoured morphology than the rat’s sleep spindles |
| Epileptiform discharges (EDs) | Spikes or polyspikes or rhythmic spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs) |
| Ictal onset attenuation (IA) | Attenuation of background voltage (i.e., <50% of prior background), loss of background frequency variability |
| Rhythmic θ/α pattern | Rhythmic evolving theta/alpha activities, +/− rhythmic EDs, that lead to a seizure. |
| Spike-and-slow wave discharge (SWDs) bursts | Stereotypical bursts of runs of rhythmic SWDs >1sec that were distinct from the background (>3x background voltage), and had relatively sudden onset and offset. |
| Wake-sleep state scoring | |
| - Awake state (AW) | Low voltage EEG activity accompanied by exploratory behavior and appearance of theta or alpha activity26, 27. |
| - Slow wave sleep (SWS) | Slow frequencies in the EEG background, including high amplitude delta waves, and frontocentral sleep spindles (7–16 Hz) accompanied by immobility. |
| - “Other” state | REM sleep and passive wakefulness were scored as “other” due to the lack of EMG and eye movement recordings. |
| Sleep spindles | 7–16 Hz frontocentral spindle-like activity seen in SWS |
Controls were not monitored (PN4–13) to avoid stress or handling. Prior experiments had not demonstrated clusters of spasms in video-monitored naïve control rats at this age.
Abbreviations: ETP: vehicle for rapamycin, i.e. 4% ethanol, 5% Tween-80 and 5% polyethylene glycol 400; i.c.v.: intracerebroventricularly; i.p.: intraperitoneally; LPS: lipopolysaccharide; PN: postnatal day; R.i.c.: right intracortically.
Seizure scoring scale: The motor behavioral correlates of seizures were classified using the Racine scale as modified by Pinel & Rovner (stage 1–8)25: stage 1, facial automatisms (chewing, jaw clonus); stage 2, head nodding; stage 3, unilateral forelimb clonus; stage 4, body jerks, bilateral forelimb clonus and rearing; stage 5, stage 4, loss of righting reflex; stage 6, repeated stage 5 seizures; stage 7, running, jumping and/or rolling; stage 8, stage 7 with periods of tonus.