SUMMARY
The study of reflex epilepsy in rats permits the physiological analysis of certain aspects of the genesis or development of a convulsive seizure and its effect.
In the period of motor excitation the phase relations between the processes of excitation and inhibition are clear:
The initial excitation is limited at the first moments by an active inhibitory process in which we find a similarity to the internal inhibition studied by the school of Pavlov (14, 20). However, this inhibition, though it can arrest the short flare‐up of focal excitation, readily exhausts, whereupon an extensive excitation occurs leading to a convulsive attack
When after decrease of the active inhibition the epileptogenic stimulus continues I to be effective, parabiotic supraliminal inhibition takes over the protective role. When also inhibition of this kind ceases to limit the excitation of the neuron, a state may develop similar to status epileptieus in man.
Deaths during attacks of reflex epilepsy occur most frequently at the time of intensive excitation which is not slowed down by the inhibitory process. This shows the necessity of a detailed investigati on and of making full use of inhibition, the naturalprotective property of the nervous system in the fight against epileptic seizures.
CO2 and the application of aminazine together with diprazine diminish, and even completely prevent death after attacks of reflex epilepsy in rats. Perhaps these means may‐foe useful in preventing fatal issues in status epileptieus in man.
The attacks of reflex epilepsy in rats, although similar in certain respects to the attacks of epilepsy in man, show some different features at the same time.
The morphological changes that can be observed in the brain of rats after attacks of reflex epilepsy show a striking resemblance to the changes characteristic of shock (25). Decrease in blood pressure and body temperature (31, 32), and the development of areflexia suggest a state of shock.
All these facts enhance the pathophysiological significance of the model of reflex epilepsy in rats and at the same time suggest the possibility of its use not only in the study of epilepsy but also in that of other pathological processes which are based on excessive excitation of cerebral neuronal structures by afferent impulses.
RÉSUMÉ
L'étude de l'épilepsie réflexe chez les rats permet l'analyse physiologique de certains aspects de la genèse ou du développement d'une crise convulsive et de ses suites.
Dans la période d'excitation motrice, les relations phasiques entre le procès d'excitation et d'inhibition surgissent nettement:
L'excitation du début se limite tout d'abord à un procès inhibiteur actif dans lequel nous découvrons une similitude avec l'inhibition interne étudiée par l'école de Pavlov (14, 20). Toutefois, iien que cette inhibition puisse arrêter le court flamboiement de l'excitation focale, elle est épuisée promptement, après quoi se produit un déploiement d'excitation qui conduit à l'attaque convulsive.
Dans les cas où, après la diminution de l'inhi...
BOOK REVIEWExperimental studies of elementary reasoning: Evolutionary, physiological and genetic aspects of behavior, L. V. Krushinsky. Translated from the edition, 1986, posthumously edited by A. F. Semokhina. English translation edited by Ethel Tobach and Inge I. Poletaeva.
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