EEG differences between the opioid and adrenergic psyhoneuroendocrine rat types

Our work is based on the hypothesis of the existence of an opioid psychoneuroendocrine type named "O" type (Cristea, 1993), opposed to the well known adrenergic "A" type described by Roseman and Friedman in 1980. In the present study we tested the differences between the background EEG activity (BEA) of the "O" and "A" rat types during restrained wakefulness and anesthesia with Ether and chloral hydrate (CHL). The differentiation of the psyhoneuroendocrine rat types was made using the level of painful sensitivity. 13 hypersensitive "A" and 14 hyposensitive "O" rats were selected from a 91 adult (140 g) male Wistar population using the distribution of the tail retraction time (TRT) during a tail-flick test. The epidural EEG activity, was quantified within the 1-30 Hz band by six numerical parameters: root mean square (RMS), mean spectral frequency (MSF), spectral edge frequency at 95% (SEF95) and the relative spectral power (RSP) within the Theta (4.5-7.5 Hz), Alpha (7.5-12 Hz) and Beta (12.5-30 Hz) bands. The quantification method used was able to detect statistically significant differences between the two psyhoneuroendocrine rat types during consciousness and light ether anesthesia but failed to show any differences during the deep CHL anesthesia. The particularities were shown to be topographically related with the fronto-parietal regions were "O" type showed a higher SEF95 during the awake restrained state. The pain sensitive "A" type showed a significant intrahemispheric theta RSP asymmetry both during consciousness and ether anesthesia while no such theta gradient could be shown for the "O" type. The differences between the "A" and "O" types are enhanced under light Ether anesthesia to which the "A" type is more resistant. The EEG complementarity between the "A" and "O" types is discussed.