Kindling

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Kindling (disambiguation) .

In neurology, kindling (from English: to kindle = to kindle, to ignite) is the progressive increase in neuronal responses to rather rare and weak stimulation of brain areas .

The kindling concept is discussed in particular in research into the development of epilepsy : a progression of epilepsy that increases in severity suggests the existence of a mechanism that causes brief neuronal epileptic discharges (which do not have to be manifested by a visible seizure ) with long-term changes in the nerve cells answered, which eventually end in epileptic focus formation and seizures. Here the neuronal synaptic plasticity leads to an “epileptization” of the brain.

In analogy to this, the phenomenon of childhood is also discussed for the development of affective disorders ( depression , bipolar disorders , manias ).

Kindling was first described in 1967 by the British-Canadian psychologist and neuroscientist Graham V. Goddard and was named in 1969 as an experimental animal "training" for epileptic seizures or a persistently increased susceptibility to seizures after prolonged use of subliminal electrical or chemical stimuli, including afterwards seizures that occur alone. Kindling is now an established epilepsy model in many animal species. Kindling has not yet been reliably proven in humans, but there are at least casuistic indications.

There are two hypotheses about the mechanism of action : The more locally oriented one says that the neural mechanism responsible for kindling is limited to the region of the corresponding stimulation. The other claims that neuronal changes in areas remote from the “kindling region” also contribute to the effect.

Individual evidence

1. ^ GV Goddard: Development of epileptic seizures through brain stimulation at low intensity. In: Nature . No. 214 , 1967, pp. 1020-1021 .
2. ^ GV Goddard, DC McIntyre, CK Leech: A permanent change in brain function resulting from daily electrical stimulation . In: Exp Neurol . tape 32 , 1969, p. 295-330 .
3. ↑ J. Wada (ed.): Kindling . Raven Press, New York 1976.
4. ^ F. Morrell (ed.): Kindling & Synaptic Plasticity: The Legacy of Graham Goddard . Birkhauser, Boston / Cambridge / Massachusetts 1991.
5. ↑ DC McIntyre: The kindling phenomenon . In: A. Pitkänen, PA Schwartzkroin, SL Moshé (Ed.): Models of Seizures and Epilepsy. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam / Boston / Heidelberg 2006, pp. 351-363 .
6. ^ TG Bolwig, MR Trimble (Ed.): The Clinical Relevance of Kindling. J. Wiley & Sons, Chichester / New York / Brisbane et al. 1989.
7. ↑ M. Sato, RJ Racine, DC McIntyre: Kindling: basic mechanisms and clinical validity. In: Electroenceph Clin Neurophysiol . tape 76 , 1990, pp. 459-472 .
8. ↑ M. Sramka, P. Sedlak, P. Nadovornik: Observation of kindling phenomenon in treatment of pain by stimulation in thalamus . In: EH Sweet (Ed.): Neurosurgical Treatment in Psychiatry, Pain and Epilepsy . University Park Press, Baltimore 1977, pp. 651-654 .
9. ^ RR Monroe: Limbic ictus and atypical psychosis. In: J Nerv Ment Dis . tape 170 , 1982, pp. 711-730 .

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