Effect of Epilepsy and Antiepileptic Treatment on Reference and Working Memory - Abstract
Epilepsy is one of the most frequent neurological alterations affecting significantly the quality of life of the individuals who suffer it. Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) is one of the most severe types of epilepsies commonly presented in the world population. It is characterized by neuronal damage in regions of the limbic system, such as the amygdala and the hippocampus (mesial temporal lobe sclerosis). These lesions provoke alterations in cognitive processes, including learning and memory.
Since epilepsy is a highly prevalent disease in the world population, experimental models have been implemented to investigate its physiopathology and test the effectiveness of anticonvulsive drugs.
The Kainic Acid (KA) model to produce TLE in rats and phenobarbital (PB) as antiepileptic drug were used in this study. Four groups of rats trained on a spatial task were used and once they met the learning criteria, one group was administered with saline solution, the second group with PB, the third with KA, and the last group with PB+KA. Results indicate that the epileptic seizures induced by KA produced deficits on reference (p<0.01) and working memories (p<0.001). PB administered 30 minutes prior KA inhibited the development of status epilepticus, protected against alterations of reference memory and minimized those of working memory. These findings suggest that reference and working memories are a part of different functional systems.