Circadian rhythmicity in absence epilepsy in rats.

In order to study putative time of day effects upon the number and mean duration of spike-wave complexes, 19 rats of the WAG/Rij strain were equipped with cortical EEG electrodes. The EEGs were recorded continuously for 48 h. A cosinor analysis was applied to both the data on each subject and the mean scores of all rats. A definite 24 h rhythm was found for the number of spike-wave complexes occurring each hour. The acrophase appeared during the early hours of the dark period, while the minimum was found to take place immediately after the onset of light. A 24 h rhythm was less prominent for the mean duration of the spike-wave complexes. Finally, there were no differences found between the 2 days of the 48 h registration period, suggesting that the number and duration of the spike-wave complexes found on a given day are representative for the following day.