A study of the role of the cholinergic system in amygdaloid kindling in rats.

The effect of atropine on kindling the amygdala of rats was tested by administering the drug in a dose of 25 mg/kg 1 h before each stimulus was applied. Rats tested with atropine kindled at the same rate as saline-treated controls. Cholinergic activity in the amygdala of rats was assessed, 4 weeks after the completion of kindling, by measuring both muscarinic receptor numbers and sodium-dependent high affinity choline uptake in tissue homogenates. There was no change in either of these parameters attributable to kindling. These results suggest that changes in the cholinergic system are not fundamental either to the development or the maintenance of kindling in the rat amygdala.