Interictal emotional state and epilepsy

The main objectives of the present study were twofold: to explore whether emotional behavior, elicited by stimulation of the hypothalamus, can influence seizure development during kindling epileptogenesis; to determine whether such stimulation can alter the expression of generalized convulsions when the fully epileptic syndrome has been established beforehand.The kindling process has been used as an animal model for studies of epilepsy. The findings indicate that stimulation in the hypothalamus, which determines fear, anxiety, and escape responses, with concomitant hippocampal theta, can significantly dampen the course of epileptogenesis. The emotional behaviors elicited by stimulation of the dorsomedial hypothalamus can suppress the development of generalized motor limbic convulsions during epileptogenesis, as well as dampen seizure expression in already established limbic epilepsy. It is assumed that the emotional disturbances can be considered as the emergence of instinctive behavior with an adaptive significance of defense and as a by-product of the inhibitory processes that build up to protect the occurrence of future seizures.