Kindled seizures from rabbits amygdala: an electroencephalographic and behavioral study.

Kindling refers to a phenomenon where an initially subthreshoid electrical stimulation applied repeatedly (daily) to the different brain structures results in the progressive development of electroclinical seizures terminating in a generalized convulsion (4, 6). It has been suggested that the kindling effect may be employed as a model of epilepsy (3, 6, 10) and epileptogenesis (7) as a neuronal model of long-term memory (7). Of all the drugs studied by Babington and Wedeking only antidepressants showed some differential effect on neocortical, caudal and amygdaloid kindled convulsions, with a more profouni blocking effect on the latter. Basing on these results, they propose kindled seizures from amygdala as a pharmacological test for screening drugs for antidepressant properties (1, 2). The kindled seizures have been studies in rats (6) in cats (11) and monkeys (9). The present study concerns the relationship between development of bioelectrical and beha-vioral kindled seizures in rabbits. The experiments were carried out on 13 male White Danish rabbits with bipolar platinium electrodes chronically implanted bilaterally into the basal nuclei of amygdala (Am) (F = 0.0, L = 5.5, H = 18.0) and motor cortex (F = 4.0, L = 3.0) subdurally accordingly to Ridge's Stereotaxic-Atlas (8). The poles of electrodes were 0.6 mm apart. The surgery was carried out under neuroleptanalgesia (20 mg/kg of chlor-promazine ip. and 4 mg/kg morphine sc). The rabbits were allowed