Neurochemical Factors in Auditory Stimulation and Development of Susceptibility to Audiogenic Seizures

Abstract

Susceptibility to audiogenic seizures has been observed in several higher animal species, including man. Several inbred strains of mice are known that show either resistance or susceptibility to convulsive seizures during the presentation of an auditory stimulus, and these differences have been attributed to specifically defined genetic backgrounds (1, 2). Mice of the C57BL/6 strain are known to be highly resistant to such seizures (1, 2). In recent studies, Henry (3) and Jumonville (4) reported, independently, that the genetically seizure-resistant C57BL/6 mice can be induced to develop high susceptibility by prior exposure to auditory stimulation during a sensitive period of postnatal development. Similar effects of priming by sound in inducing susceptibility to audiogenic seizures have also been found in other resistant strains of mice (5, 6, 7). It has now been made clear that susceptibility to audiogenic seizures is not only determined by genetic differences but that it is also inducible by prior auditory input, at least in some strains of mice. The findings on this phenomenon of acoustic priming from several behavioral studies and their neurological implications have been reviewed and discussed in the article by K. R. Henry and R. Bowman in this volume.