Can stress modulate the severity of convulsions and subsequent behavioural outcome?
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Date
2008
Authors
Ejaredar, Maede
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Department of Neuroscience
Abstract
Status epilepticus is prolonged seizure activity lasting for more than 30 minutes that result in a series of morphological alterations in the brain as well as some changes in the behaviour. Experiment 1 examined the relation between status epilepticus, spontaneous seizures, hippocampal volume and the behaviour of rats that had experienced status epilepticus. Experiment 2 examined the relation that stress and status epilepticus had on hippocampal volume, spontaneous convulsions and a subset of the behaviours from Experiment 1.
The results of this thesis confirm that status epilepticus is associated with hippocampal volume loss. Status epilepticus and/or reductions in hippocampal volume may result in behavioural impairments, especially in spatial memory. Unlike some of the other studies, stress did not change the hippocampal volume nor did it interact with status to produce further change. Further investigations are required to confirm whether stress has a compounding effect on status epilepticus and subsequent seizure disorders.
Description
Keywords
hippocampus , spontaneous seizures , status epilepticus , stress