Diana Ibarra / Psychology / Faculty Mentor: Yuan Bo Peng
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a procedure that is used to improve severe symptoms of several mental health conditions (e.g., major depression). The use of ECT can lead to memory impairments in some patients. We hypothesize ECT will disrupt pain memory. Local field potentials (LFPs) in combination with ECT were used to test the neural dynamics across five frequency bands (delta 0.3 – 3 Hz, theta 3 – 7 Hz, alpha 7 – 12 Hz, beta 12 – 30 Hz, and gamma 30 – 100 Hz) in four distinct regions in the rat brain: anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right amygdala (RAMG), hippocampus CA1 and CA3. Under isoflurane anesthesia, the LFP was recorded in two separate conditions: formalin-only (pain), and ECT post-formalin. The formalin (50ul at 3%) was injected in the left hind paw. The ECT was delivered at parameters consisting of combination of 50 pulse/s, 0.7 ms, 2 s at 50 mA, 3 times 12-15 s apart. The results reveal that the formalin injection increases of power across all five frequency bands. The application of ECT after formalin injection displays a mixed inhibition or facilitation in the five frequency bands. These observed ECT effects on LFP responses need further study in awake animals.
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