EXPERIMENTAL NEUROPHYSIOLOGY IN ANIMAL MODELS

In our experience, neurophysiological tests have already proved their efficacy in functional exploration of both peripheral and central nervous system in a variety of experimental models of acquired and even more genetic neurologic diseases. They range from experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS), to metachromatic and globoid cells leukodystrophies, through some kinds of muscle dystrophy, to models of mental retardation and/or epilepsy. Functional data collected from neurophysiological tests are easily replicable, allowing longitudinal evaluation without sacrificing animals, and give insights about pathological processes underlyng the modelled disease. Moreover, neurophysiology allows to detect events not captured by clinical observation (e.g. electric seizures). The usefulness of these models for assessing novel treatments in genetic diseases, such as gene therapy in metachromatic leukodystrophy, has in some case documented by already published studies.