The Acute Period in Modeling of Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats: Immediate Convulsions, Damage to Neocortical Functional Zones, and Behavioral Impairments

Objectives. Establishment of a link between the nature of damage to the neocortex and the functional manifestations of this damage is important for understanding the mechanisms of development of acute convulsions and their sequelae. Analysis of immediate convulsions in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in practice is extremely difficult but can be performed in animal models. Study aims. To compare damage to functional areas in the neocortex with the semiology of immediate convulsive seizures and behavioral impairments in the acute period after TBI. Materials and methods. Studies were carried out using 48 Wistar rats. TBI was modeled by application of lateral hydrodynamic blows to the area of the right sensorimotor cortex. Video recordings were made at the moment of trauma and for 5 min into the post-trauma period, which provided for studies of the semiology of convulsive seizures. This was followed by use of a series of tests assessing the animals’ behavior. Results and conclusions. This study is the first to use the “unfolded maps” approach for detailed analysis of damage to the functional zones of the neocortex in the acute period of TBI. The focus of damage in the cortex increased over 3–7 days and was complex in shape, far removed from the limits of the area of direct action. Blows induced immediate convulsions, whose variability could not be explained only by the involvement of defined areas of the neocortex, along with behavioral impairments which could be the manifestations of developing necrosis largely in the sensory areas of the neocortex.