Neuronal migration disorders have been involved in various pathologies, including epilepsy, but the properties of the neural networks underlying disorders have not been determined. In the present study, patch clamp recordings were made from intrahippocampal heterotopic as well as from neocortical and hippocampal neurons from brain slices of rats with prenatally methylazoxymethanol-induced cortical malformation. We report that heterotopic neurons have morphometrical parameters and cellular properties of neocortical supragranular neurons and are integrated in both neocortical and hippocampal networks. Thus, stimulation of the white matter induces both antidromic and orthodromic response in heterotopic and neocortical neurons. Stimulation of hippocampal afferents evokes a monosynaptic response in the majority of heterotopic neurons and a polysynaptic allor-none epileptiform burst in the presence of bicuculline to block ␥-aminobutyric acid type A inhibition. Furthermore, hippocampal paroxysmal activity generated by bath application of bicuculline can spread directly to the neocortex via the heterotopia in methylazoxymethanol-treated but not in naive rats. We conclude that heterotopias form a functional bridge between the limbic system and the neocortex, providing a substrate for pathological conditions. Migration of young postmitotic neurons from the ventricular zone to the cortical plate where they differentiate is a key event in cortical development. Neuronal migration disorders lead neurons to differentiate in an abnormal or heterotopic position (1). Periventricular and subcortical heterotopias long have been described in the brain of patients suffering from epilepsy (2-6). Moreover, discrete intracortical heterotopias also have been described in the brains of patients suffering from dyslexia (7) and schizophrenia (8). Together, these data suggest that neuronal migration disorders may constitute a morphological basis for these pathologies.Despite their importance for the understanding of the physiopathological mechanisms of these disorders, the cellular properties and connections of heterotopic neurons are known poorly. In the present study, we have used the prenatal methylazoxymethanol (MAM) model that is associated with microcephaly (9, 10) and cortical disorganization with periventricular and intrahippocampal heterotopias (11-13). We report that intrahippocampal neocortical heterotopic neurons have bi-directional monosynaptic connections with the neocortex and are integrated in the hippocampal circuitry. They therefore provide a direct aberrant link between the hippocampus and the neocortex and a basis for disorders associated with cortical malformation. As an example for this, we report that paroxysmal activity generated in the hippocampus can directly propagate to the neocortex via the heterotopia.
MATERIALS AND METHODSAnimals. Pregnant Wistar rats were injected i.p. with 25 mg͞kg of MAM (Sigma) dissolved in saline at embryonic day 14 (first gestation day as embryonic day 0). After normal delivery, r...