Effects of Vitex agnus - castus extract on after- discharge threshold, seizure stages and kindling acquisition in male rats

Vitex agnus - castus extract [Vitex] is available in dosage forms for female disorders treatment. This extract has shown controversial effects against seizures induced by Maximal electroshock [MES] or pentylenetetrazole [PTZ]. In the present study the anti-seizure activity of Vitex against acquisition of amygdala kindling was evaluated in male rats. Methods: Intact male rats were stereotaxically implanted with a tripolar and 2 monopolar electrodes in amygdala and dura respectively. The threshold of AD emerging was determined in each animal. Then, Vitex or solvent was injected and AD threshold was determined again. Also, Vitex injection was continued daily and seizure stages [S1 to S5] and ADDs were recorded 30 min post Vitex injection till development of full kindling. Vitex treatment increased the AD threshold significantly more than 2.5 times and decreased the after-discharge duration [ADD]. Although, the number of trials increased significantly by Vitex for exhibition of stages 1 [S1] to S3, but this effect was not significant for development of S4 and S5 [generalized seizures]. The cumulative ADDs difference between control and Vitex group was only significant for S3 - S5. Conclusions: Vitex may induce a protective effect via increment of stimulation threshold and decrement of ADD at least against focal epilepsy in amygdala neurons. Regarding to its limited effects on kindling acquisition at late stage with generalized seizures, Vitex may postpone the progress of epileptic activity at initial stages

Functional imaging of Broca's area in native Persian speakers: an fMRI study

The problem of localization of speech associated cortices using noninvasive methods has been of utmost importance in many neuroimaging studies, but the results are difficult to resolve for specific neurosurgical applications. In this study, we used fMRI to delineate language-related brain activation patterns with emphasis on the Broca's area during the execution of two Persian language tasks. The subjects comprised of nine healthy right-handed men who participated voluntarily in this study. They performed two consequent fMRI paradigms namely; "Word Production" and "Reverse Word Reading". The fMRI data were collected and analyzed. Then, functional images were registered to anatomical images using FSL software. The laterality indices were also calculated in regions of interest with different threshold levels. The results indicate that Broca's area, as the classical language-production center, was robustly activated while performing these two tasks. In eight out of nine subjects, the left hemisphere dominancy and Broca's area activation were observed and in one case activation was prominent in the homologous area in the right hemisphere. Similar pattern of cortical activation during Persian word production and Anglophone languages such as English was revealed. fMRI is a valuable means for brain mapping in language studies