Animal models of early life seizures and epilepsies

Epilepsy can occur throughout the human life span, with peaks during early life and senescense/ageing. During development, epilepsy is often but not always diagnosed in association with cognitive and behavioral impairment, which may be the result of the underlying etiology and/or the consequences of epilepsy and treatments as factors of age and sex. Despite evolutionary and biological differences between rodent and human brain development, the possibility to model early life epilepsy and seizures in mice and rats helped the understanding of numerous factors involved in seizures pathophysiology: neurotransmitter maturation, inhibitory and excitatory pathways imbalance, genetic and epigenetic influences and the association between epileptic activity and learning deficits. Modeling early life epilepsies will improve the validity and reliability of translational studies in the search of the underlying neurobiological pathways and allow for identification and selection of better treatments.