Unilateral peri-substantia nigra catecholaminergic lesion and amygdala kindling.

Recent evidence suggests that the substantia nigra (SN) may be involved in the modulation of kindled seizures in adult rats. In this report we investigated the role of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway in mediating the SN effect on seizures by lesioning this pathway with unilateral infusions of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) in the vicinity of the right SN with or without desmethylimipramine pretreatment. Our data suggest that the facilitation of amygdala kindling observed following 6-OHDA lesion in the vicinity of the ipsilateral SN is due to norepinephrine depletion of the ipsilateral forebrain. Selective destruction of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons neither facilitates nor inhibits the development of amygdala-kindled convulsions in adult rats.