Role of the striatum in the mechanism of serotoninergic effects on the course of metrazol convulsions in rats

The effect of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HT) and parachlorophenylalanine (PCPA) on behavioral and electroencephalographic manifestations of metrazol convulsions during electrical stimulation and destruction of the striatum was studied in freely moving rats. The effect of the compounds on the seizures, the myoclonic spasms, and the spike-and-wave activity evoked by metrazol did not depend significantly on the functional state of the corpus striatum. Meanwhile the ability of 5-HT to ameliorate, and of PCPA to aggravate the course of the generalized convulsion and the postconvulsive state was potentiated by stimulation and abolished by destruction of the striatum. It is suggested that activation of the serotoninergic mechanisms may be responsible for the abolition of the convulsions that is observed in the case of excitation of the corpus striatum.Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR V. V. Zakusov.Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 82, No. 7, pp. 789–792, July, 1976.