Social behavior impairment in offspring exposed to maternal seizures in utero.

Human and animal models have demonstrated that maternal seizures in utero could be deleterious to the development of the offspring. This study focused on the social behavior of offspring exposed to seizures in utero. A pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy was induced in female Wistar rats that were mated after the first spontaneous seizure. Early after birth, pups from an epileptic mother were reared by a control mother. To evaluate the influence of the adoption process, two other groups were added: rat pups from control mothers cross-fostered with other control mothers, and rat pups reared by their birth mother. Animals exposed to seizures in utero showed impaired social behavior with no signs of anxiety-like behavior. This study demonstrated that epileptic seizures during pregnancy could be harmful to brain development and may increase the risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. The mechanisms underlying the abnormalities of social behavior are not well understood, and further studies in this field are warranted.

Different types of status epilepticus lead to different levels of brain damage in rats.

We investigated a possible correlation between behavior during status epilepticus (SE) and underlying brain damage. Adult rats were electrically stimulated in the left amygdala to induce SE, which was stopped 2 hours later. We observed two different types of SE: (1) typical SE (TSE), with facial automatisms, neck and forelimb myoclonus, rearing and falling, and tonic-clonic seizures; (2) ambulatory SE (ASE), with facial automatisms, neck myoclonus, and concomitant ambulatory behavior. TSE was behaviorally more severe than ASE (P<0.05). Histology revealed neuronal loss in several brain areas. There was a positive correlation between SE type and amount of injured areas 24 hours and 14 days after SE (P<0.01). The areas more affected were piriform cortex and hippocampal formation. We suggest quality of seizures during SE may be considered in further SE studies, as our results indicate its influence on the severity of brain damage following this paradigm.

Differential audiogenic seizure sensitization by selective unilateral substantia nigra lesions in resistant Wistar rats.

Evaluation of the participation of different substantia nigra sites in the sensitization of resistant (R) animals to audiogenic seizures (AS), was performed after series of small (5 mC; n = 28), medium (10 mC; n = 57) and large (15 mC; 3 points of 5 mC each, n = 19) unilateral electrolytic lesions of the substantia nigra (SN) in R rats. Animals were evaluated at 5, 10, 15, and 30 days post surgery and behavior was measured by a neuroethological method. Small unilateral lesions induced AS susceptibility in 14% R animals with 3% of them displaying tonic-clonic AS. Medium sized lesions induced AS susceptibility in 50% of the animals with 18% of these exhibiting tonic-clonic seizures similar to those displayed by naturally susceptible (S) animals, but with predominance of wild running (gyri, jumping and atonic falling) contralateral to the lesioned SN. AS severity was significantly higher at day 5 postsurgery, decreasing at days 10, 15 and 30. Large unilateral lesions destroying the entire SN failed to cause tonic-clonic seizures although wild running occurred in 10% of the animals. Bilateral large SN lesions (15 mC; n = 24) did not modify AS severity in S animals, but only induced a statistically significant increase in the AS latency. The present data suggest: (i) AS severity after SN lesions is not a linear function of the lesion size; (ii) functionally different and antagonistic AS related substrates may exist in the SN; (iii) neurochemical and hodological characterization of these areas should be important for a better understanding of their role in AS.

New insights into behavioral evaluation of audiogenic seizures. A comparison of two ethological methods.

Wistar male rats were tested for susceptibility to audiogenic seizures (AS) and classified into sensitive (S) and resistant (R) groups by means of a severity index (SI). Susceptible animals were those which displayed wild running behavior (gyri, jumping and atonic falling) followed by generalized tonic-clonic seizures and consequently had an SI = 0.85 (maximum; n = 10). Resistant animals were considered those with no convulsive response to the acoustic stimulation having an SI = 0 (n = 10). Behavioral sequences of susceptible and resistant animals were recorded and analyzed using two ethological methods which basically considered behavior item frequency and statistical interactions of sequential patterns. Both methods include the concept of cluster analysis but do not include a simultaneous analysis of behavior frequency and time spent in each behavior. Thus, a third method is proposed to graphically display both frequency and temporal patterns in a more complex cluster analysis. The methods discussed here allow comparisons of behavioral sequences in a given experimental situation such as susceptible against resistant animals, acute and chronic seizures, comparison of pre- and postdrug effects, etc. Consequently, they may be the micro-behavioral substrate for correlation with contemporary molecular analysis of epileptic seizures.

Personalidad y tipo de crisis en la epilepsia focal y generalizada / Type of personality and of crisis in focal and generalized epilepsies

Los factores de riesgo que contribuyen al desarrollo de psicopatología en epilépticos, han sido motivo de permanente discusión. En este estudio examinamos la relación entre la epilepsia del lóbulo temporal y la psicopatología. Se analizan 2 muestras de 12 pacientes, portadores de epilepsia del lóbulo temporal (Grupo 1) y epilepsia generalizada (Grupo 2). Ambos grupos se controlan para la edad, sexo, años de escolaridad, duración de la enfermedad, CI total y estado neuropsicológico. Finalmente se comparan en su personalidad según el MMPI. Los resultados se analizan según las Reglas de Goldberg para diagnóstico secuencial de perfil; según el Indice de Huesmann para agresividad y escala a escala, según Chi-cuadrado. Los resultados muestran que ambos grupos no difieren significativamente en sus rasgos de personalidad, categorización diagnóstica y expresión de su agresividad. Se señala que la epilepsia del lóbulo temporal constituye un factor de riesgo insuficiente por sí mismo para explicar los trastornos psicológicos presentes en estos pacientes

Pena in the Ecuadorian Sierra: a psychoanthropological analysis of sadness.

In highland Ecuador, pena refers to a state of mind characterized by a mixture of sadness and anxiety as well as to an illness state resembling depression. This paper attempts to illustrate, through an analysis of the discourse on pena, how the ideology in which it is embedded serves to interpret a bodily problem at the same time as it reflects a more global attitude toward life. In essence, the folk theory states that the physical complaints caused by suffering are the result of a disturbance of the heart, the central organ of man, and of the emotional life which it controls. Because this suffering is often attributed to the immediate family group of the victim, the community at large often formulates accusations against one of its members. Though the therapy is limited to a cure of the symptoms through herbal remedies, a formal request can be made to a perceived wrongdoer to amend his behavior. The pena is also a state which can lead to colerin, a dangerous and sometimes lethal illness which is characterized by a sudden explosion of anger or madness and which will follow an unattended state of pena.

Emotional complications of adolescent grand mal epilepsy.

Adolescents who have grand mal epilepsy and their parents were interviewed, and the adolescents were evaluated neurologically. Better seizure control and less neurologic disability were unexpectedly associated with less open communication between the adolescents and their families and friends, and with a poorer self-image and poorer expectations for the future. These findings were unrelated to IQ or school performance. This outcome is consistent with other studies of invisible defects and stigmatization, and suggests that youngsters who have relatively mild defects involving social disability may be more troubled than those with more apparent defects, for which denial may be operative. An incidental finding in the study was that a question more predictive of overall family, social, and academic function than the neurologic findings was simply whether or not the youngster was attending the appropriate grade in school for his or her age.