Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

ABSENCE SEIZURES

Heartless beat or beatless heart?

Recurring bursts of thalamocortical cells were thought to be indispensable in driving absence seizures. A new study demonstrates that bursts from inhibitory thalamic reticular neurons are crucial instead. Reticular bursts are driven by cortical inputs and govern precise timing of thalamocortical cell activity during seizures.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The thalamocortical system.

Marina Corral Spence/Springer Nature

References

  1. Hüser, J., Blatter, L. A. & Lipsius, S. L. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 524, 415–422 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bohn, G. et al. FEBS Lett. 481, 73–76 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Crunelli, V. et al. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 19, 107–118 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Swadlow, H. A. & Gusev, A. G. Nat. Neurosci. 4, 402–408 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Cheong, E. & Shin, H.-S. Physiol. Rev. 93, 961–992 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Sorokin, J. M. et al. Neuron 93, 194–210 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. McCafferty, C. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0130-4 (2018).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. David, F. et al. J. Neurosci. 33, 19599–19610 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Rovó, Z. et al. J. Neurosci. 34, 7137–7147 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Herd, M. B., Brown, A. R., Lambert, J. J. & Belelli, D. J. Neurosci. 33, 14850–14868 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Paz, J. T. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 14, 1167–1173 (2011).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Lee, S. E. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111, 11828–11833 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Beenhakker, M. P. & Huguenard, J. R. Neuron 62, 612–632 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Barthó, P. et al. Neuron 82, 1367–1379 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Guye, M. et al. Brain 129, 1917–1928 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to László Acsády.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Acsády, L. Heartless beat or beatless heart?. Nat Neurosci 21, 649–651 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0140-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0140-2

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing