But just such a mechanism has been proposed to underly propagation of pathological firing activity in some forms of epilepsy (inhibitory interneurons driven into depolarization block leading to failure of inhibitory veto) as well as spreading depression [56].
Originally, pathological fire-setting was considered as a phenomenon perpetrated by physically disabled or mentally retarded pubescent girls who had abnormal psychosexual development [ 18].
While in healthy people, phasic movements are modulated in the γ-band (Pfurtscheller et al. 2003; Miller et al. 2007), pathological firing patterns in the β-band (13 30 Hz) in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) have been linked to akinesia and rigidity in PD patients (Marsden et al. 2001; Kuhn et al. 2008).
The behaviours involved include pathological gambling, pathological setting of fires (pyromania), pathological stealing (kleptomania), and recurrent pulling of hair (trichotillomania).
Many neurological pathological conditions result from neurons firing action potentials at higher frequencies than normal, which lead to these cells displaying a tonically depolarized membrane potential.
Liar, liar, pants on fire: Am I a pathological liar?
Persons suffering from pyromania have a pathological and uncontrollable urge to set fires.
Currently available data indicate that effective DBS overrides pathological bursts, low frequency oscillations, synchronization, and disrupted firing patterns present in movement disorders, and replaces them with more regularized firing.
In the pathological case where many neurons have become entrained to fire synchronously in time with a particular rhythm then the ability for the basal ganglia to convey meaningful information would clearly be limited.
HF STN DBS suppressed pathological oscillations in GPe/GPi both by exciting and inhibiting the firing in GPe/GPi neurons, and the number of GPe/GPi neurons influenced was greater for HF stimulation than low-frequency stimulation.
