Takeaway
A lack of stability of thalamic and cortical responses during seizures may contribute to impaired conscious sensory perception during absences.
Why this matters
Absence seizures—characterized by involuntary behaviors, staring and unresponsiveness— result from thalamocortical oscillations, leading to spike-and-wave activity on electroencephalograms (EEG). However, the neuronal underpinnings of impaired consciousness during absence seizures remain unknown.