Abstract
Network mechanisms relevant for the generation, maintenance and termination of spike-wave discharges (SWD), the neurophysiological hallmark of absence epilepsy, are still enigmatic and widely discussed. Within the last years, however, improvements in signal analytical techniques, applied to both animal and human fMRI, EEG, MEG, and ECoG data, greatly increased our understanding and challenged several, dogmatic concepts of SWD. This review will summarize these recent data, demonstrating that SWD are not primary generalized, are not sudden and unpredictable events. It will disentangle different functional contributions of structures within the cortico-thalamo-cortical system, relevant for the generation, generalization, maintenance, and termination of SWD and will present a new "network based" scenario for these oscillations. Similarities and differences between rodent and human data are presented demonstrating that in both species a local cortical onset zone of SWD exists, although with different locations; that in both some forms of cortical and thalamic precursor activity can be found, and that SWD occur through repetitive cyclic activity between cortex and thalamus. The focal onset zone in human data could differ between patients with varying spatial and temporal dynamics; in rats the latter is still poorly investigated.