ABSTRACT
External stimuli may contribute to seizure occurrence in at least two ways. First, the aberrant neuronal activity that precipitates a seizure could be elicited by certain external events; and second, external events could cue the organism to an impending seizure and result in a compensatory response that is, in effect, 'anti-convulsant'. While previous research has been aimed at addressing these issues, the results have been inconclusive. The present study was conducted to clarify and extend this prior work. Adult male Long-Evans hooded rats were chronically implanted with a kindling electrode and randomly assigned to one of two groups. The Tone group was presented with a 2-s auditory stimulus (Tone) beginning one second prior to and overlapping with the 1-s kindling stimulus. Animals in the No Tone group received only the kindling stimulus. Antecedent tone presentation significantly delayed the rate of amygdala kindling. The Tone group required significantly more stimulations to reach a Stage 5 seizure than did the No Tone group. The possibility of this phenomenon providing a means to study the mechanisms underlying anti-epileptogenesis is discussed.