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Cortical-evoked Responses in Pyridoxine-deficient Rats¹

Department of Psychology, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604 and Research Institute, St. Joseph Hospital, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604

The effect of postweanling pyridoxine deficiency on central nervous system (CNS) function in rats has been studied. The latency of the visually evoked cortical response was employed as a measure of CNS reaction to stimulation in rats implanted with chronic electrodes. The deficient animals showed significant increases in the latency which were reversible by pyridoxine treatment. Data on pyridoxal-5'-phosphate, the coenzyme form of pyridoxine, showed a depletion of about 50% in the brains from the deficient animals as compared with the controls. Since the structural maturation of the brain is considered to be essentially complete at weaning in rats, the present data suggest that the effects of pyridoxine deficiency on the CNS need not be related to the critical preweanling period of development.

KEY WORDS: • pyridoxine deficiency • central nervous system functions • brain pyridoxal-5'-phosphate

¹ Supported by National Institutes of Health (NS 05789, NS 07861 and GRS RR 05657), U.S. Public Health Service.

Manuscript received 6 September 1972.