EXPERIMENTAL CHRONIC EPILEPSY IN THE MONKEY

Abstract

PREVIOUSLY it was reported¹ that section of the corpus callosum either before or after the application of alumina cream (suspension of aluminum hydroxide in water) to the precentral motor cortex of monkeys restricted subsequent epileptic seizures to the contralateral side. The attacks in animals with section before treatment with alumina cream were severer and more easily elicited than those usually observed in epileptic monkeys without section of the corpus callosum. Section performed in a group in which recurrent seizures had previously been established was rapidly followed by contralateral status epilepticus. These observations suggested not only that the corpus callosum played a major role in the spread of convulsive discharges from one cerebral hemisphere to the other, but that also its section might have intensified the resulting contralateral attacks through severance of "inhibitory" fibers from the opposite hemisphere. It has been shown that subtotal ablation of the precentral motor cortex