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Updated: Aug 21, 2026
Assessment of Memory Function in Pilocarpine-induced Epileptic Mice
Published on: June 4, 2020
Carbamazepine enhances discriminative memory in a rat model of epilepsy
Rosane B Bernardi1, Helena M T Barros
1Division of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Physiological Sciences, Fundação Faculdade Federal de Ciências Médicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Purpose:
Seizures and antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are the main causes for cognitive impairment in persons with epilepsy. It is still a matter of debate whether carbamazepine (CBZ) improves cognition because of its own psychotropic effects or because it is more effective to treat temporal epilepsy. Our objective was to analyze the performance of CBZ-treated or nontreated pilocarpine epileptic rats in an object-recognition test.
Methods:
Twelve chronic pilocarpine-induced epileptic rats were treated with CBZ, 40 mg/kg, or saline, t.i.d. for 8 days. Twenty-one nonepileptic controls were treated with CBZ or saline. On day 8 of treatment, all rats were tested with an object-recognition paradigm.
Results:
No locomotor impairment was detected in chronic epilepsy or CBZ treatment, as exploration during training was not affected. Exploratory behaviors during the choice session were not decreased in rats treated with CBZ; therefore CBZ does not compromise procedural memory. Epileptic rats showed a nonsignificant change in the discrimination performance, and prolonged treatment with CBZ in epileptic rats induced a significant increase in object discrimination during the choice session.
Conclusions:
Even though pilocarpine-induced epileptic animals do not show compromised performance in the spontaneous object-recognition test, prolonged CBZ treatment has a positive effect on a simple object-discrimination task. These results may be associated with the psychotropic effects of CBZ.
