Kindling as a model of neuronal plasticity (Effect of dentate nucleus lesion upon amygdaloid kindling in rats)

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Amyidaloid kindling is used to investigate whether the cerebeller dentate nuc eus participates in the neuronal plasticity of the cerebrum. In this report we studied the behavioral change, the occurrence of epileptiform events and duration of afterdischarge during amygdaloid kindling under control conditions and after a dentate lesion of the contralateral or ipsilateral cerebellum. Our results indicate that the contralateral dentate lesion induced the facilitation of the behavioral development of the amygdaloid kindling, whereas, there was only a slight increase of the spontaneous epileptiform potential of the amygdala. A second finding was that on a right amygdala which had been influenced by a left dentate lesion, there were few spikes, while on the left amygdala there were frequent spikes. In the ipsilateral dentate lesioned group there was no difference of the development of kindling and number of spikes of the amygdala comparing to the control kindling. However there was a difference of the duration of afterdischarge. As to the comparison of the ipsilateral and contralateral kindling there were significant differences of the development of kindling and spontaneous spikes but no difference of the duration of afterdischarge. These results suggest that the dentate nucleus plays an important role in amygdaloid kindling as well as in the neuronal plasticity of the amygdala, specifically. Therefore the dentate nucleus must play a role in controlling the generalization mechanism of epilepsy. However, the shortening of the afterdischarge of the dentate lesion of either side may be caused the diminution of dentate-thalamic excitatory system.If the dentate lesion was done after the accomplishment of the amygdaloid kindling, there was no significant change of the development of kindling, the duration of afterdischarge and the number of spontaneous spikes.