title: Learning impairment in chronic epileptic rats following pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus.
abstract: Male Wistar rats were subjected to pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus and allowed to recover. After reaching the chronic state with spontaneous seizures they were tested in an 8-arm radial maze. During learning trials, epileptic rats made significantly more errors than controls. Even in the last trials epileptic rats did not improve their performance, indicating severe learning disability. These results suggest that spontaneous seizures after pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus are a useful model for studying the learning and memory impairment detected in some cases of symptomatic epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Neurologia e Neurocirurgia, Escola Paulista de Medicina, São Paulo, Brasil.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Leite
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lemos
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Masur
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Cavalheiro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010862:Pilocarpine; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013226:Status Epilepticus / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D010862:Pilocarpine