Amygdala kindling and muricide in rats

It was demonstrated that home cage muricide in the Wistar rat was uneffected by bilateral amygdala after-discharge threshold (ADT) reduction. The subsequent kindling of the amygdala, however, resulted in an apparent facilitation in the onset of the predatory response. In a larger predatory arena, the above manipulations had no effect upon the muricide response of Royal Victoria Hooded rats. There were no obvious amygdala EEG correlates of muricidal versus non-muricidal rats, e.g., differences in ADT, AD duration, kindling rate, etc. In addition, the ADT of the two amygdalae were seemingly independent. Similarly, ADT reduction and/or kindling had no effect upon the contralateral amygdala ADT. As has been previously shown, kindling of one amygdala significantly facilitated the rate of motor seizure development from the second, as well as provoking changes in the onset latency to motor seizure. The muricide data were discussed in the context of kindled induced synaptic facilitation and functional lesion effects.