Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 620, Issue 1, 20 August 1993, Pages 139-141
Brain Research

Electroconvulsive stimulation and synaptic plasticity in the rat

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(93)90280-ZGet rights and content

Abstract

The effects of repeated, spaced, electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS) on rodent hippocampal synaptic plasticity was investigated in vivo. Long-term potentiation (LTP) was induced in intact rats using high-frequency perforant path stimulation, and measured by recording extracellular excitatory field potentials and population spikes evoked in the dentate gyrus by low-frequency stimulation before and after LTP induction. LTP induction appeared to be inhibited in animals which had received ECS. However, inspection and analysis of absolute excitatory postsynaptic potential and population spike size before LTP induction in ECS treated animals suggested that LTP may have already been induced as a consequence of seizure activity, reducing the degree to which further potentiation could be elicited experimentally.

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    The reasonable explanation is that the inherent potent antidepressant effect of ECS might induce the ceiling effect due to the high antidepressant efficacy of ECS, while the potential benefit of ketamine is cancelled by ECS (Andrade, 2018). Previous study has suggested that ECS-induced LTP impairment is related to “LTP saturation” based on “LTP-like” changes induced by ECS (Luo et al., 2014; Stewart, Jeffery, & Reid, 1994; Stewart & Reid, 1993). Nevertheless, we came to realize that this mechanism could not fully explain another important phenomenon during ECT administration in clinic; i.e., the charge of ECT necessary to induce an epileptic seizures which requires up-regulation over time due to a constantly increasing seizure threshold during a course of ECT (Chen et al., 2017; Okamoto, et al., 2010).

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