Epilepsy or epileptic syndromes affect more than 70 million people, often comorbid with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Seizures are concerned as a factor for social regression in ASD. A stepwise experimental approach to this problem requires an animal model to provoke seizures and monitor subsequent behavior. We used rats of the Krushinsky–Molodkina (KM) strain as a validated inbred genetic model for human temporal lobe epilepsy, with recently described social deficiency and hypolocomotion. Generalized tonic-clonic seizures in KM rats are sound-triggered, thus being controlled events in drug-naïve animals. We studied whether seizure experience would aggravate contact deficits in these animals. Locomotor and contact parameters were registered in “the elevated plus maze”, “socially enriched open field”, and “social novelty/social preference tests” before and after sound-provoked seizures. The triple seizure provocations minimally affected the contact behavior. The lack of social drive in KM rats was not accompanied by a submissive phenotype, as tested in “the tube dominance test”, but featured with a poor contact repertoire. Here, we confirmed our previous findings on social deficits in KM rats. The contact deficiency was dissociated from hypolocomotion and anxiety and did not correlate with seizure experience. It was established that experience of rare, generalized tonic-clonic convulsions did not lead to an impending regress in contact motivation, as seen in an animal model of genetic epilepsy and comorbid social deficiency. One of the oldest animal models for epilepsy has a translational potential to study mechanisms of social behavioral deficits in future neurophysiological and pharmacological research.

Epilepsy is often accompanied by psycho-emotional disorders, the most common of which are anxiety disorders, depression and conditions leading to impaired social interaction. This study investigates the social behavior of rats with diff erent predispositions to audiogenic epilepsy: Krushinsky-Molodkina (KM) rats with high sensitivity to sound and “0” rats selected from a population of F2 hybrids of the KM rats and Wistar rats, insensitive to sound stimulation, for the absence of audiogenic epilepsy. The results demonstrate social behavior impairments in both intact “0” rats and intact KM rats. The “0” rats in the social tests showed interest in social stimuli but did not prefer the new stimulus to the old one, while the KM rats showed no social preference, nor interest in social novelty. After repeated sound stimulation (audiogenic kindling), KM rats developed myoclonic seizures, paralleled by aggravation of social deficits, while the social behavior of “0” rats, resistant to the seizure provocations, did not significantly change.

Bilateral symmetrical spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs) with a frequency of 7–11 Hz, recorded in WAG/Rij rats with genetically determined absence activity, serve as electroencephalogram (EEG) hallmarks of this activity. Absence epilepsy proceeds without motor manifestations and is accompanied by freezing, and twitching of the vibrissae and head in rodents. Krushinsky-Molodkina (KM) rat strain with a genetically determined predisposition to audiogenic epilepsy (AE) is considered a seizure model of reflex epilepsy. AE is characterized by the occurrence of tonic-clonic seizures provoked by an intense auditory stimulus. Approximately 20–50% of WAG/Rij rats exhibit a predisposition to AE, although with a less pronounced audiogenic seizure proneness compared to KM strain rats. Recent studies of the electrical brain activity in KM rats have shown the presence of absence-like activity on the EEG. This study aimed to compare SWD characteristics in three groups of rats with varying predispositions to AE: (1) WAG/Rij-nonAGS (n = 10)—WAG/Rij rats insensitive to a sound provocation, (2) WAG/Rij-AGS (n = 12)—WAG/Rij rats predisposed to AE, and (3) KM rats (n = 18) with a maximum audiogenic seizure proneness. EEG recording was performed using bipolar electrodes implanted into the somatosensory cortex. A comparative analysis of spectral power, number, total and average duration of SWDs was conducted in two subpopulations of WAG/Rij rats (WAG/Rij-nonAGS, WAG/Rij-AGS) and KM rats with AE and absence-like EEG activity. Comparison between two subpopulations of WAG/Rij rats showed a significant increase in the number, as well as average and total duration, of SWDs in WAG/Rij-AGS compared to WAG/Rij-nonAGS. SWDs in KM rats with a fundamental frequency of 8.7 Hz were suppressed by ethosuximide and accompanied by behavioral symptoms characteristic of absence epilepsy. Absence epilepsy exacerbated in the following order: WAG/Rij-nonAGS → WAG/Rij-AGS → KM. Therefore, the severity of absence seizures increases in parallel with the enhancement of audiogenic brain reactivity, which may indicate the exacerbating role of the convulsive component in the structure of mixed epilepsy.

Epilepsy is often accompanied by psycho-emotional disorders, the most common of which are anxiety disorders, depression and conditions leading to impaired