Electroconvulsive Stimulation in Mice

Eleven to 15-week old mice were arbitrarily assigned to ECS and sham groups, with the exception that male and female mice were equally distributed across groups. Bilateral auricular ECS was administered via padded ear clip electrodes connected to a pulse generator (ECT Unit; Ugo Basile, Gemonio, Italy). Ear clip electrodes were soaked in saline solution and placed on the base of the pinna. Stimulation parameters were adapted from Yanpellewar et al. [41 (link)] and set at 0.5 ms pulse width, 50 Hz frequency, 0.5 s total shock duration, and 20–24 mA current. ECS stimulation generated a seizure scoring 5 on the Racine seizure scale for rodents [42 (link)] for all stimulated animals. Animals displayed a loss of posture, rearing, and tonic–clonic limb movements, with full recovery. Sham animals were handled and ear clipped in the same fashion (for 1 min) but did not receive any stimulation. Stimulated animals were removed and placed back to the home cage once they regained posture and motor function.