Changes in emotional behavior produced by long-term amygdala kindling in rats

The effects of long-term amygdala kindling on emotional behavior were investigated. In Experiment 1, rats received 99 basolateral amygdala, central amygdala, or sham stimulations. The rats in both kindled groups displayed more resistance to capture from an open field and more open-arm activity on an elevated plus maze than did the sham control rats. In Experiment 2, rats received either 20, 60, or 100 amygdala stimulations or sham stimulations. Compared to the sham controls, the kindled rats explored less during the first 30s in a novel open field, avoided the central area of the open field, resisted being captured from the open field, and engaged in more open-arm activity on the elevated plus maze. The magnitude of these effects was greatest in the 100-stim rats and least in the 20-stim rats. Together, these results suggest that long-term amygdala kindling in rats is a useful model for studying the emotionality associated with temporal lobe epilepsy.