Bilateral kindled amygdala foci and inhibitory avoidance behavior in rats: A functional lesion effect ☆

Abstract The repeated administration of brief low level electrical stimulation can be used to produce latent kindled epileptic foci in discrete regions of brain. Three groups of rats with kindled amygdala foci were trained and tested on a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task. The training-retention test interval was 24 hr. Animals with bilateral foci were impaired on this task. Animals experiencing either 6 convulsions or 12 convulsions from a unilateral focus were not impaired. This result is interpreted as support for the hypothesis that a kindled focus can act as a functional lesion.