Active Avoidance Learning in Rats with Different Audiogenic Epilepsy Proneness

Abstract

Learning difficulties are a fairly common comorbid complication in patients diagnosed with epilepsy. The relationship between the predisposition to epilepsy and the ability to learn is an important problem. The aim of the study was to analyze how the learning capacity differs in rats with different predispositions to reflex audiogenic epilepsy (AE). The success of active avoidance (AAC) conditioning in the shuttle box in rats of 3 strains was evaluated. These were rats predisposed to audiogenic epilepsy—the Krushinsky–Molodkina strain (KM), strain “4” (selected from a population of F2 hybrids of the KM strain and AE non-prone Wistars) and rats of “0” strain, selected for the absence of AE from the same population (i.e. these strains differ radically in AE-proneness, but have a similar genetic background). The training was conducted continuously for 5 days (20 presentations per day). Experiments have shown significantly more successful acquisition of this skill in rats of the “0” strain: in total, 75% of animals reached the learning criteria for 5 days of AAC training (70% AAC per day). The “4” strain rats indices were intermediate—41.7%, and only 1 from the 12 rats of the KM strain (8.3%) acquired the task according to this protocol. Thus, it was possible to identify more successful learning in rats, selected for the absence of AE seizures (strain “0”) compared to rats of the KM and “4” strains (expressing tonic seizures of maximum intensity in response to sound exposure). The weakest acquisition was revealed in the KM strain, in which the selection process duration for AE proneness was significantly longer than in the rats of the “4” strain.