The effect of hypophysectomy, ACTH fragments and thalamic lesions upon kindled epilepsy

Hypophysectomized rats showed aberrant and retarded rates of kindled epilepsy. In hypophysectomized rats administered adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) subunits ACTH 4–10 and ACTH 1–24, the normal kindling pattern was restored. However, in hypophysectomized animals which also had lesions of the thalamus (nucleus parafascicularis), ACTH 4–10 did not restore the normal pattern of kindling. There have been many conjectures that kindling may be a subcase of learning. These results are compatible with this hypothesis, since the same procedures act in an analogous fashion within avoidance conditioning paradigms.