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Biomedical subjects

M A Persinger

Publications and source records attributed to M A Persinger.

294 records · Page 17Linked to original sources

Seizure onset times for rats receiving systemic lithium and pilocarpine: sources of variability.

Injection of 30 mg/kg of pilocarpine 24 h after systemic injection of lithium (3 mEq/kg) results in overt limbic motor seizures within about 30 min. Results of several experiments indicated that whereas food deprivation or repeated nociceptive stimulation during the previous 24 h decreased seizure onset times (SOTs) by about 11 to 12 min, food restriction, continuous lighting, or, handling during the previous 7 to 14 days increased SOTs by comparable durations. Early handling before weaning but not injections of clomimpramine also decreased SOTs. A difference of 18 min in the means of SOTs was produced by injecting either 1.0 (increased SOT) or 1.5 mg/kg (decreased SOT) of dexamethasome during the previous 24 h. A strong (multiple r=.87) association between SOTs and the amount of damage within five specific thalamic-limbic nuclei was observed. These results, in conjunction with blood corticosterone levels taken before and after induction of the seizures, suggest the neurochemical mechanisms affecting the range in SOTs could involve the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-corticosterone system and influence the amount of post-seizure-induced damage.

Animals↗

Synergistic induction of severe hypothermia (poikilothermia) by limbic seizures, acepromazine and physical restraint: role of noradrenergic alpha-1 receptors.

The maintained production of extreme reductions in core temperature (20-22 degrees C) or poikilothermia can be reliably produced by the synergistic interaction of limbic seizures (induced by lithium and pilocarpine), postseizure administration of a single injection of acepromazine, and physical restraint. Administration of the specific and nonspecific dopamine antagonists haloperidol, chlorpromazine, SCH23390, or clozapine did not simulate the effect at clinically effective dosages. Single injections of phentolamine and prazosin but not of propranolol instead of acepromazine following the seizures produced the poikilothermia. This effect was also reproduced by reducing the amount of the rats' adipose weight before the induction of the seizures and physical restraint. Rats that had been restrained or not restrained and displayed either euthermia or hypothermia exhibited significantly different patterns in brain damage within limbic and thalamic structures.

Acepromazine↗

Application timing of complex magnetic fields delineates windows of posttraining-pretesting vulnerability for spatial and motivational behaviors in rats.

Male Wistar rats were trained in a two-session-per-day, non-matching-to-sample radial maze task. During the 2 hr interval between training sessions and testing sessions subjects were exposed for 60 min to either sham fields or to a low intensity (200 to 500 nT) electromagnetic (EM) complex pattern whose electrical (current) equivalent has been shown to elicit long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal slices. This pattern was applied either immediately following the training sessions or immediately antecedent to the testing sessions. Exposures to the experimental field immediately following the training session were associated with an impairment in spatial memory as inferred by increased commissions of reference errors. Exposures immediately prior to the testing session were associated with decreased motivation as inferred by a reduction in speed of responding. These results suggest that the timing of the presentation of patterned magnetic fields may differentially affect the representations of habit strength and drive within the consolidating memory trace.

Analysis of Variance↗

Modification of activation and evaluation properties of narratives by weak complex magnetic field patterns that simulate limbic burst firing.

In two separate experiments a total of 71 volunteers were asked to generate spontaneous narratives that were scored automatically by the Whissell Dictionary of Affect. During the narratives, weak (1 microT; 10 mG) magnetic fields were applied briefly through the temporal planes. In Experiment I, subjects who were exposed to simple sine wave or pulsed fields generated more scorable words that indicated lower activation and evaluation than sham-field conditions. In Experiment II subjects exposed to a computer-generated wave form, designed to simulate neuronal burst firing, generated narratives dominated by more pleasantness and less activation than a reference group. The possibility that this approach could be utilized to study the affective dimension of language selection was indicated.

Adult↗