Behavioral and Electroencephalographic Manifestations of Avian Epilepsy: A Review of the Literature

ABSTRACT Recently, electrophysiological studies on sleep and wakefulness in birds have yielded useful results. Furthermore, recent evidence obtained in behavioral and electroencephalo-graphical investigations of epileptic birds, induced neuropharmacologically or genetically, have led to recognition of the fact that epileptic seizures are present in aves, and that these seizures reveal many similarities between mammalian and avian epilepsy. While the investigation of birds is of obvious value for demonstrating the neuropharmacological interrelationship with the brain, comparison of the correlation between abnormal behavior and the electroencephalogram in birds and higher vertebrates requires further research. In the present paper, normal and abnormal electroencephalographic activity associated with behavior of birds is reviewed. It was concluded that birds provide a useful preparation for studying experimental epilepsy. Poultry Science 56:773-792, 1977 Although information on the avian nervous system has been relatively sparse in comparison with the data available for the mammalian nervous system (van Tienhoven, 1969), investi-gations upon the electrophysiology and anat-omy of the avian nervous system considerably extended the knowledge of the unique struc-ture of the avian brain since 1967 (Corner e