Neutralization of sensory-input modification of seizure thresholds in rats.

Abstract

In this series of experiments it was demonstrated that the result of exposing rats to various parameters of either intermittent sound or intermittent light stimulation significantly decreased the threshold to chemically induced generalized seizures. Furthermore, simultaneous presentation of intermittent light with intermittent sound resulted in a mutual intersensory inhibition (cancellation, neutralization) of the preexisting seizurogenic potential of each stimulus. In these cases, the seizure thresholds did not differ from control values. Several working hypotheses are extended to probe the mechanism of the above results. The probable significance of these observations are (a) that the corroboration of results of other experiments on bimodal inhibitory interactions in normal animals suggests that intersensory inhibition is a property of the nervous system presented simultaneously with certain inputs and (b) that if generalizable to humans, the principle of intersensory inhibition may find an application in the abortion of sensory-precipitated seizures.