Sites of Origin of Hypoglycemic Seizures in the Rabbit

Abstract

Introduction Hypoglycemia exerts profound effects on the nervous system, eventually leading to coma, which may be accompanied by seizures or convulsions. For more than 20 years insulin shock has been widely used therapeutically in the treatment of mental disorders (Himwich,¹ Kalinowsky and Hoch²). Although empirical in rationale, the treatment, like electroshock therapy, has been rewarded with sufficient success to make its mechanism of action worthy of study, even though the new tranquilizing agents have largely replaced it in therapy. Numerous attempts have been made, employing the techniques of pathology and electroencephalography (EEG), to determine whether insulin therapy has a primary focus of action in the brain, with which might be correlated its beneficial effects. The pathological studies have sought the locus of lesions following hypoglycemic attacks of natural or experimental hyperinsulin origin. In addition to the cerebral and cerebellar cortices in which most authors describe marked changes, profound