GABA Becomes Exciting

It has been known for decades that epileptic seizures are caused by hyperexcitability of neurons in the brain, but what causes this hyperexcitability remains unclear. In his Perspective, KA¶hling explores new work (Cohenet al.) showing that inhibitory interneurons, previously believed to keep excitatory pyramidal neurons in the hippocampal region in check, can sometimes switch behavior and become excitatory leading to discharges reminiscent of epileptic activity. The author is at the Institute of Physiology, University of MA¼nster, 48149 MA¼nster, Germany. E-mail: kohling@uni-muenster.de