Sensitization for audiogenic seizures in two strains of mice and their F 1 hybrids

Acoustic sensitization or priming for audiogenic seizures was studied in 304 “seizure‐resistant” mice of C57BL, BALB/c and their F 1 hybirds. The effect of priming was found to be a function of strain, age of the first auditory exposure, and duration of exposure. In BALB/c mice priming at ages 21–28 days induced very high incidence of seizures; in this stran 2‐min exposure was more effective than both 60 sec or 30 sec. The same parameters of priming induced very low seizure incidence in C57BL mice. A behavior‐genetic analysis indicated that the genotype of each parental strain might contribute equally to the priming induced seizure risk of their F 1 hybrids, but C57BL mice appeared to be dominant to the BALB/c for some components of audiogenic seizures.