Foci of increased activity with independent firing patterns were created by means of weak solutions of strychnine in acute experiments on rats. A hyperactive focus of excitation created by means of concentrated strychnine solutions played the role of determinant structure. Its role was to determine the character of activity of the other epileptogenic foci, to enhance their paroxysmal activity, to combine them into a single functional complex, and to determine the behavior of the whole complex. This complex could be destroyed by suppressing the activity of the determinant focus. Elimination of any of the dependent foci forming the complex did not disturb the complex itself. These investigations confirm, on a new model, the general concept of the role of determinant structure in the activity of the CNS. © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation.
