Chronobiological rhythms and pathology in the brain

Chronobiological rhythms are cycles in our physiology and behaviour that can occur every 24 hours (circadian rhythms), or on the scale of minutes to hours (ultradian rhythms). They allow us to make adaptations in anticipation of cyclical changes in our environment, such as the transition from day to night. When disrupted, they can contribute towards ill health and have long been linked to neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and dementia. However, it is currently unknown how pathological processes, such as those underlying epilepsy, affect the expression of biological rhythms in the brain.

In this talk, I will present my recent work using long-term, continuous EEG records of patients with epilepsy. I will discuss how to delineate the long (circadian) and short-term (ultradian) rhythms in neural activity in different regions of the brain. I will demonstrate some of the differences observed in pathological brain areas, independent of regional variations or pathological events, and discuss how these findings could change our understanding of the brain pathology.