A genetic epilepsy rat model displays endophenotypes of psychosis

NC Jones; S Martin; I Megatia; T Hakami; MR Salzberg; D Pinault; MJ Morris; TJ O'Brien; M van den Buuse

Journal article

A genetic epilepsy rat model displays endophenotypes of psychosis

NC Jones, S Martin, I Megatia, T Hakami, MR Salzberg, D Pinault, MJ Morris, TJ O'Brien, M van den Buuse

Neurobiology of Disease | ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE | Published : 2010

DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2010.02.001

Abstract

The incidence of psychosis is increased in people with epilepsy, including idiopathic generalized epilepsies. To study the biological basis for this co-morbidity, we compared GAERS, a genetic rat model of absence epilepsy, to non-epileptic control rats (NEC). Mature, 14-week old GAERS showed enhanced amphetamine-induced locomotor hyperactivity - a feature also present in young (6-week old) GAERS prior to epilepsy onset. Prepulse inhibition and its disruption by psychotropic drugs did not differ between strains, although GAERS displayed elevated startle responses at both epileptic and pre-epileptic ages. The frontoparietal cortex of GAERS displayed a twofold increase in the power of gamma (30..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Nigel Jones Author

Michael Salzberg Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the assistance of Maya Reddy in generating the ECoG figures. This work was supported by NHMRC project grants to NJ (566544); to TJO, MM and MS (400088) to TJO, MS, MM, NJ and MvdB (566843); and a Joint Research Project grant from the University of Melbourne (NJ and DP).