Interplay between interictal spikes and behavioral seizures in young, but not aged pilocarpine-treated epileptic rats.

Interictal spike activity is commonly observed in the EEG of patients with epilepsy, but the causal interrelationship between interictal spikes and behavioral seizures is poorly understood. We performed long-term video-EEG monitoring of 16 epileptic rats after pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus and five control animals. To quantify the interplay between periods of spikes and seizures, we calculated the time spent with spikes as well as the time spent with seizures for each animal.