Antiepileptic effect of electroacupuncture vs. vagus nerve stimulation in the rat thalamus

Jian Liang Zhang, Shi Ping Zhang, Hong Qi Zhang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Our previous study has shown that both electroacupuncture (EA) and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) can inhibit cortical epileptiform activities induced by pentylenetetrazole (PTZ). The current study compared the effects of EA and VNS on thalamic neuronal responses to PTZ-induced epileptiform activities. Under general anesthesia, extracellular single unit recordings were made from 49 single neurons in the rat ventrobasal (VB) thalamus. The left vagus nerve was stimulated at 30 Hz, 1 or 3 mA for 5 min. For EA, "Dazhui" acupoint (GV14) was stimulated with the same parameters. It was found that (1) the VB thalamic neurons showed epileptiform activities after PTZ injection; (2) VNS and EA could predominantly inhibit the PTZ-induced epileptiform activities in the thalamic neurons. The higher intensity stimulation (3 mA) in either VNS or EA was, however, not associated with a greater inhibition. Our study suggests that both EA and VNS reduce epileptiform activities at the thalamic level, and EA may be an alternative to VNS.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)183-187
Number of pages5
JournalNeuroscience Letters
Volume441
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Aug 2008

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Neuroscience(all)

User-Defined Keywords

  • Electroacupuncture
  • Epilepsy
  • Pentylenetetrazole
  • Thalamus
  • Vagus nerve stimulation

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