Local cerebral glucose utilization in epileptic seizures of the mutant El mouse.

The neural pathway and the focus of the epileptic seizure of mutant El mice were studied by the [14C]2-deoxyglucose technique. In the mice with full tonic-clonic seizure, the entire neocortex and hippocampus showed a remarkably increased metabolic rate. By contrast, a lower metabolic rate was evident in the thalamic nuclei, central gray, locus coeruleus and some interstitial nuclei. The epileptic focus in El mice presumably exists in the hippocampus.