Comparison df Chemical and Mechanical Alternation of Seizure Pattern in Mice.

摘要

During the past several years, one of us has been primarily concerned with the effects of changes in the stimulus pattern as related to seizure incidence and latency in genetically susceptible mice that characteristically react to a white noise above 86 db by exhibiting clonic-tonic convulsions which, in the majority of cases, prove fatal (3, 4). The other has studied the effects of metabolically active substrates and enzyme inhibitors on the same behavior reaction (6, 7, 8). In the present paper one particular stimulus pattern is compared with a substrate producing some similar effects, and the two are used in combination in an attempt to elucidate the mechanism of action of each. It has been shown that after a 20-sec. priming stimulus and 10-sec. interruption followed by 90 sec. of sound stimulation, there is a decrease in susceptibility to convulsions as compared with continuous stimulation (3). It has also been demonstrated that glutamic acid reduces the convulsive risk and increases survival in several susceptible strains, that this effect can be counteracted by structural analogues of glutamic acid, that adaptation to glutamic acid occurs upon repeated administration, and that the response of the two sexes to this substrate differs in the DBA/1 strain (6, 8). There are two major points of similarity resulting from the two procedures: (a) a reduced seizure incidence, and (b) a reduced incidence of fatalities among animals that convulse. The differential response of the two sexes obtained with glutamic acid is, on the other hand, not a sequel to interrupted stimulation. Pg1. JMD.