Two distinct excitability types delineate the partition between normal brain function, engram encoding, and the two phases of hyperexcitability/epileptic susceptibility

The conventional conceptualization of neuronal excitability as a unitary phenomenon obscures critical distinctions between synaptic and ephaptic mechanisms of neural activation. In the present investigation, we separate excitability into two independent parameters synaptic (p) and ephaptic (b) within a cellular automata framework. This separation facilitates the precise demarcation of operational regimes across the (p, b) parameter space, encompassing normal brain function (with and without engram encoding), and hyperexcitability/epileptic susceptibility phases (HEPS), including tonic and clonic manifestations.

Note that hyperexcitability (HEPS) as defined here does not distinguish between cases of non-epileptic episodes and actual epileptic seizures. Simulations reveal possible contiguous HEPS domains intrinsically linked to memory (normal / encoding) processes, situated (p