Alumina cream-induced focal motor seizures in cats: bilateral lesions of the mesencephalic reticular formation.

The effect of bilateral lesions of the mesencephalic reticular formation on the EEG-EMG patterns of types B and C alumina cream-induced focal motor seizures was studied in cats with chronically implanted electrode and cannula lesion systems. EEG patterns included number, amplitude, and contralateral propagation of type B spikes and occurrence and duration of type C tonic-clonic discharges. EMG patterns included changes in muscular multiple-unit activity time locked to the onset of type B spikes and to the onset and end of type C tonic-clonic EEG paroxysmal discharges. The lesions persistently blocked the orienting response to visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli to both sides in all cats and produced other neurologic symptoms partially or totally recovered in some cats. The lesions significantly increased the number, amplitude, and contralateral propagation of type B EEG spikes and the occurrence, but not the duration, of type C EEG tonic-clonic discharges. Ipsi- and contralateral adversion of the tonic phase were completely blocked and the muscular contractions of the clonic phase were reduced and delayed. These facts suggest that in intact epileptic cats, the mesencephalic reticular formation has an ascending suppressive influence on the mechanism related to EEG spike generation and precipitation of seizures but also a descending facilitatory control on the corticospinal epileptic impulses mediated through pyramidal and extrapyramidal pathways.