Unraveling alterations of excitation/inhibition balance in in vivo models of epilepsy and genetic autism

One prominent feature of brain computation is the excitation inhibition balance (E/I balance) that represents one of the main homeostatic functions of the brain. Its aim is to maintain the neural circuits in a narrow and safe range of action. Within this range, the brain network can receive and analyze sensory inputs and produce a modulated output, proportional to the stimuli intensity. Any imbalance in this equilibrium leads to abnormal responses to external stimuli and results in pathological behavior. Indeed, neurological pathologies known for featuring a deep alteration of the E‐I balance are epilepsy and autism, which often occur together in the same patient. Several human genetic syndromes caused by alterations of genes involved in neural development feature signs like autism and epilepsy. Thus, they represent important cases for studying and understanding the role of these single altered genes in the development and regulation of the brain balance. In return, we hope that this knowledge of these genes and more generally of human brain network can be useful in treating the patients affected by these conditions and can help us improve their quality of life. In my work, I studied the regulation of the E/I balance in mouse models of neurological diseases from three different points of view. In the first set of experiments, I studied the E/I balance in a focal model of epileptiform activity. This model is produced by the local application of bicuculline to the mouse cortex. Bicuculline is a competitive GABAA receptor antagonist that, when applied, leads to the development of persistent and periodic interictal spikes at the injection site, while activity appears to be normal in nearby areas that are not reached by bicuculline. In our experiments, we showed that, even in the apparently normal area, there is a disruption of cortical computation. Specifically, the disruption occurs whenever an interictal spike is generated in the epileptic focus. This can have important impact on our understanding of epilepsy and of its treatment since interictal spikes are a common feature not only of epileptic patients, but can also appear in non‐epileptic subject, apparently without any consequence. From our results, we concluded that interictal activity can actually interfere with brain operation not only in the center of the epileptiform activity, but also in the connected areas, where the E/I balance is not directly disrupted. These results provide an example of the fact that apparently non‐symptomatic interictal spikes can affect brain computation. The second experimental model that I studied is a mouse model for a specific human genetic disease: the Phelan‐McDermid syndrome. This is a developmental disease, caused by a genomic deletion at site 22q13. The main suspect for causing the disease is one gene, Shank3, which encodes for a scaffold protein localized in the post‐synaptic density of glutamatergic synapses. In this model, we studied the computation of visual stimuli and we found an alteration of the contrast‐response curve. This is a defining relationship of visual processing: it is the transfer function that converts the visual input into a neural output. This means that to each intensity of visual stimulation corresponds a certain intensity of the neural response, of the visual cortex. We determined that, in Shank3 mutant mice, this curve was altered and showed an increased response to less intense stimuli and showed also a poor modulation of responses to high‐contrast stimulations. An interpretation of this can be that these mice are more sensitive to low‐contrast stimuli, but completely lose the ability of telling apart different high‐contrast stimuli from each other. Therefore, the Phelan McDermid mouse becomes “blinded” by weak stimulations as if they were seeing strong stimulus. Finally, we studied the behavior of the chloride ion in a drug‐induced epileptic seizure model. Chloride ion is of pivotal importance in neurons were the activation of ionotropic GABA and glycine receptors, which increase chloride membrane conductance in response to GABA or glycine release respectively. The intracellular concentration of chloride ions decides what is the effect of GABA release. Traditionally, ionotropic GABA receptors activation was thought to be inhibitory only, but the excitatory or inhibitory nature of these receptors is determined by the intracellular concentration of chloride ions. This concentration in normal adult neurons is thought to be around 5 mM: at this concentration, the effect of the activation of GABA receptors is an inhibition of the postsynaptic element. We investigated if the chloride concentration can be varied under extreme pathologic conditions as during epileptic seizures in a drug induced mouse model. In these animals, the epileptic seizures were produced by local administration of 4‐aminopyridine (4‐AP), a potassium channel antagonist. The effect of 4‐AP is to cause accumulation of chloride ions in neurons and this suggests that, in epileptic crisis, the role of inhibitory neurons can actually favor excitation.