Deficits in working but not reference memory in adult rats in which limbic seizures had been induced before weaning: implications for early brain injuries.
Male adult rats that displayed limbic seizures between postnatal days 18 and 21 after a single s.c. injection of Li followed 4 h later by a muscarinic agent were trained in a radial arm maze; they were compared with rats that had received the Li-pilocarpine (but had not displayed overt seizures) and to nonhandled controls. Only the rats that had displayed the (preweaned) seizures displayed significant impairment for working memory but not for reference memory. Light microscopy demonstrated histological evidence of earlier damage only within select thalamic structures that are directly associated with the amygdaloid-hippocampal complex. The results are compatible with the hypothesis that early seizures during the time of CA1 hippocampal maturation can produce long-term changes in the efficacy of short-term memory.
Kostakos
M
M
Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ont., Canada.
Persinger
M A
MA
Peredery
O
O
D000818:Animals; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D008032:Limbic System / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008094:Lithium; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010862:Pilocarpine; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012640:Seizures / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D013788:Thalamus / Q000473:pathology; D014886:Weaning
D010862:Pilocarpine; D008094:Lithium