Electrophysiological study of effects of basolateral Amygdala on the function of visual system structures

Epilepsy is one of the most spread neurodegenerative diseases. This disease occurs in people of all ages from infancy to old age and can have lethal effects as well. The present work explores the electrical activity in the visual system structures, specifically in the visual cortex, lateral geniculate body, colliculus superior and retina in penicillin-induced amygdala epilepsy. Experiments were carried out on awake, non-anesthetized immobilized rabbits. The development dynamics of epileptic activity were observed in all visual system structures. Electroencephalogram and analysis of evoked potentials in the studied structures reaffirm the idea of direct connections between the visual cortex and the amygdala. This is evidenced by the generation of short-latency responses in the visual cortex and other visual system structures. For the first time, under the conditions of experimental epilepsy, it was shown that the epileptic activity is spread along the centrifugal pathways from the basolateral amygdala to neuronal elements of the primary visual cortex, lateral geniculate body, colliculus superior and ganglionic layer of the retina.