Interpretable Machine Learning Identifies an Emergent Absence Seizure Mechanism

Absence seizures are widespread spike-and-wave oscillations disrupting consciousness. Several consciousness frameworks emphasize intercortical/thalamocortical feedback dynamics, but we lack explicit dynamical mechanisms for how seizures disrupt these circuits. Using interpretable machine learning, we derived dynamical equations directly from seizure electrocorticogram data, reproducing seconds-long multi-regional local field potentials with precision matching inter-mouse variability. The model contained a low-dimensional chaotic seizure attractor emerging from between-region synchronization at preferred phase-lags. Unit recordings revealed corresponding spiking synchrony at single-neuron resolution, linking somatosensory and motor cortex with posterior thalamic nucleus (PO). Model coupling terms predicted tonic and burst firing spatiotemporal organization across regions and guided multisite-optogenetic stimulations. These stimulations showed PO controls corticocortical connectivity gain and that motor/somatosensory corticocortical functional connectivity varies at predicted phase-lags to drive seizures. Our results define absence seizures as dynamics confined to a chaotic attractor within a circuit implicated in anesthetic unconsciousness, linking distributed network chaos to loss of consciousness.