Quantitative analysis of spike-wave discharge patterns in pentylenetetrazole rat model

The paper reveals differences and similarities in the spike-wave discharges in the hemispheres of rats exposed to pentylenetetrazole (PTZ). PTZ rats are often considered as model of both epilepsy and spreading depression. We propose a simple automated discharges detection approach to process dual channel time series of nine animals. Its sensitivity and specificity were examined on the basis of more than 1500 discharges in both hemispheres separately. According to the results of the analysis, in five out of nine animals the distribution of discharges was different in right and left hemispheres at $\mathrm{a}p\lt 10^{-5}$ significance level. It proves that response to systemic PTZ administration can be symmetric over brain in some animals and asymmetric in others, revealing that individual predisposition of animals is a fundamental problem of cross-hemisphere analysis.