Relationship of Form and Frequency of Experimental Epileptic Discharges to Age

Abstract

Postnatal development of the electrocorticogram of the kitten reveals a spatial and temporal order of emergence of evoked responses to peripheral stimuli. The earliest responses are observed in the somato-sensory cortex and assume (in light narcosis) the form of a "spike and wave" complex. Tendency of the immature cortex to produce this type of discharge is also manifested during the pathological state of an epileptic after-discharge. Metrazol and electrically induced seizure activity in the cortex of kittens consist in the first wks. of life of repetitive self-sustained "spike and wave" discharges without admixture of fast "spikes". The latter appear with increasing age and are observed consistently in the epileptic after-discharge of adult cortex. Findings indicate the importance of electro-ontogenetic studies in investigations of epileptic seizure activity.