An astro-neural field model for propagation of cortical spreading depression

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is a pathological phenomenon characterized by a wave of intense neural firing which slowly propagates through the cortex. This wave is followed by a depolarization block, resulting in a prolonged suppression of the neural firing. CSD is considered a key mechanism underlying certain types of migraine with aura. In this work, we build upon a previous computational model of neural populations, which was proposed for studying CSD propagation dynamics observed in various pharmacological and optogenetic conditions. However, the original model considers only neurons. It does not take into account astrocytes, which are crucial for maintaining ionic homeostasis in the brain and are therefore thought to play an important role in CSD dynamics. In this master thesis, we propose an extension of this neural population model to astrocytes. We implement our extended model in Matlab and validate it by using the experimental results corresponding to modulated neural behavior via pharmacological and optogenetic tools. Furthermore, our model suggests that enhancing astrocyte activity could potentially slow down and eventually stop CSD propagation.