[Observation of a photosensitive syndrome in Macaca nemestrina (author's transl)]

Out of a group of 12 M. nemestrina (originating from Malaysia), 9 adults had shown clinical signs induced by ILS at 25 c/sec. Six of them (3 males, 3 females) were very photosensitive; however, only 2 presented eyelid and/or head jerks after the end of ILS (level 4), but never a generalized seizure. Tactile periorbital stimuli favoured myoclonus. In all but the two of level 4, the intensity of clinical signs varied from one day to the next. In all implanted adult macaques, spontaneous paroxysmal EEG activities were seen during slow sleep in mostly anterior areas, but also during waking and REM sleep in some of them; however, their occurrence depended upon the individual and were not in all cases related to their level of photosensitivity. During ILS, paroxysmal discharges (spikes and waves and/or polyspikes and waves), isolated or in bursts at 3-4/sec were bilateral and symmetrical. They started in fronto-rolandic regions, then became generalized. This observation constitutes a new fact since the discovery, in 1966, of the photomyoclonic syndrome of Papio papio, Macaca nemestrina being another species of subhuman primates with a marked predisposition to photosensitive epilepsy.