All together, the pharmacological reactivity of STOP null mice to antipsychotics evokes the pharmacological response of humans to such drugs. Totally, our study suggests that STOP null mice may provide a useful preclinical model to evaluate pharmacological properties of antipsychotic drugs.

Previous studies have shown an increase in the number of GABAergic and total neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) of the genetically epilepsy-prone rat (GEPR). Amino acid analysis of the central nucleus of the IC, as well as cerebellum, sensorimotor, temporal, and occipital cerebral cortices of GEPRs with high pressure liquid chromatography showed significant increases in the levels of GABA, taurine and glutamate. The IC of GEPR displayed a 2.3-fold increase in GABA as compared to that of non-epileptic rats, a 2.4-fold increase of taurine, and a 1.9-fold increase of glutamate. In addition, taurine and glutamate were increased in the sensorimotor and temporal cortex, respectively. These results are consistent with previous anatomical data on the GABAergic system in the IC and provide additional information. The increase in taurine and glutamate in the IC indicates that other neurotransmitters could be involved in the mechanism of seizure activity.