Neuronal dynamics and conscious experience: an example of reciprocal causation before epileptic seizures

Authors: Le Van Quyen M.¹; Petitmengin C.²

Source: Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Volume 1, Number 2, 2002 , pp. 169-180(12)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

Neurophenomenology (Varela 1996) is not only philosophical but also empirical and experimental. Our purpose in this article is to illustrate concretely the efficiency of this approach in the field of neuroscience and, more precisely here, in epileptology. A number of recent observations have indicated that epileptic seizures do not arise suddenly simply as the effect of random fluctuations of brain activity, but require a process of ‘pre-seizure’ changes that start long before. This has been reported at two different levels of description: on the one hand, the epileptic patient often experiences some warning symptoms that precede seizures from several minutes to hours in the form of very specific lived events. On the other hand, the analyses of brain electrical activities have provided strong evidence that it is possible to detect a pre-seizure state in the neuronal dynamics several minutes before the electro-clinical onset of a seizure. We review here some of the ongoing work of our research group concerning seizure anticipation. In particular, we discuss experimental evidence of ‘upward” (local-to-global) formation of conscious experience and its neural substrate, but also of the “downward” (global-to-local) determination of local neuronal activity by situated conscious activity and its substrate large-scale neural assemblies. This causal role of conscious experience may lead to new kinds of therapy for epileptic patients.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Groupe de Neurodynamique, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Imagerie Cérébrale, CNRS UPR 640, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France E-mail: quyent@t‐online.de 2: Institut National des Télécommunications, Evry, France

Publication date: 2002-01-01

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