Susceptibility of brainstem to kindling and transfer to the forebrain.

Purpose: The kindling of seizures with stimulation of brainstem sites has been reported inconsistently in the literature. The characteristics of the kindling observed, involving high intensities of stimulation and immediate onset of generalized tonic-clonic convulsions, raise questions regarding the nature of kindling from these sites.

Methods: We implanted chronic electrodes in either the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis (RPO), mesencephalic reticular formation (MRF), dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG), or ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) in male Long-Evans rats, with a recording electrode in the amygdala.

Conditioning of interictal behaviours, but not ictal behaviours, seizures or afterdischarge threshold, by kindling of the amygdala in rats.

Rats received 45 pairings of kindling or sham stimulation in distinctive contexts before a conditioned place preference/aversion test, to determine whether the stimulation and seizures were rewarding or punishing. After more pairings, rats received kindling stimulation in each context (switch test). Ictal measures in this test included afterdischarge duration, clonus duration, latency to clonus, class of convulsion and falls.

Thalamic and hippocampal mechanisms in spatial navigation: a dissociation between brain mechanisms for learning how versus learning where to navigate.

Various studies of hippocampus and medial thalamus (MT) suggest that these brain areas play a crucial, marginal, or no essential role in spatial navigation. These divergent views were examined in experiments using electrolytic Lesions of fimbria-fornix (FF) or radiofrequency or neurotoxic Lesions of MT of rats subsequently trained to find a stable visible (experiment 1) or hidden platform (experiments 2 and 3) in a water maze (WM) pool. Rats with electrolytic Lesions of FF or radiofrequency Lesions of MT were impaired in swimming to a stable visible platform, particularly the MT Lesion Group, suggesting impairment of WM strategies acquisition.

Involvement of extracellular regulated kinase and p38 kinase in hippocampal seizure tolerance.

The mechanisms underlying brain seizure tolerance, a phenomenon in which brief periods of seizures protect brain against the lethal effects of subsequent sustained seizures, are poorly understood. Because brain seizure tolerance and brain ischemia tolerance likely share certain common mechanisms, the recent evidence that activation of extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 kinase pathways plays a critical role in ischemic preconditioning suggests that a similar mechanism may underlie brain seizure tolerance. We investigated the hypothesis in a rat kainic acid preparation of seizure preconditioning and tolerance, which was established by induction of one episode of priming epileptic status lasting for 20 min on the first day and another episode of sustained epileptic status lasting for 2 hr on the second day.

Selective antiepileptic effects of N-palmitoylethanolamide, a putative endocannabinoid.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether N-palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), a putative endocannabinoid, would be effective against kindled amygdaloid seizures. For a comparison with earlier work, we also tested the effectiveness of PEA against pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced convulsions.

Methods: Kindling electrodes were implanted bilaterally in the amygdala in 32 Long-Evans rats.

Relations between brain pathology and temporal lobe epilepsy.

Temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common type of epilepsy in adult humans, is characterized clinically by the progressive development of spontaneous recurrent seizures of temporal lobe origin and pathologically by hippocampal neuronal loss and mossy fiber sprouting. In this study, we sought to test the prominent hypothesis that neuronal loss and mossy fiber sprouting play a critical role in the genesis and progression of temporal lobe epilepsy. Rats receiving a single kainic acid injection experienced a single sustained episode of epileptic status with massive neuronal loss and mossy fiber sprouting, whereas rats receiving triple kainic acid injections experienced two priming episodes and one sustained episode of epileptic status with no detectable neuronal loss and mossy fiber sprouting.