Ictal and enduring interictal disturbances in emotional behaviour in an animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy

Unilateral microinjections of kainic acid (4.7 nmol) were made into the dorsal hippocampus of 17 unanaesthetized freely moving cats. These injections provoked an acute period of intense seizure activity (first 48–72 h) which in 10 cats was followed by a chronic period of recurrent spontaneous complex partial seizures persisting for as long as the cats were studied (up to 4 months). During the chronic epileptic period 8 of these 10 cats demonstrated both ictal and interictal emotional behaviour disturbances. The ictal events included behaviour similar to a ‘defensive rage’ reaction. Interictally, each of the cats demonstrated an emotional lability. That is, although they behaved in a normal manner if handled affectionately, any mild provocation triggered an explosive defensive rage reaction. As well, the thresholds for electrical brain stimulation induced defensive rage were lowered. That the interictal emotional behaviour disturbances were related to the presence of an active epileptogenic process was suggested by the finding that during periods when no spontaneous seizures were observed for several days, the cats reverted to a less emotionally reactive state and the thresholds for stimulation-induced defense reactions returned to baseline. The results indicate that epileptogenic lesions of the temporal lobe alone can induce an enduring disturbance of emotional behaviour. They support the view that emotional disturbances in patients with epilepsy may sometimes result from pathophysiological mechanisms related to the epileptogenic process, and further suggest that such emotional disturbances might be reversed or prevented if the epileptic seizures could be controlled.