Enhanced physiological tremors may be amplified by anxiety or fear and are visible to the naked eye (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2012a and National Institute of

Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2012b). Essential tremors occur selleck inhibitor during voluntary muscle contractions and may also be triggered by stress or fear or by drugs including neuroleptics, cyclosporines, and β2 adrenergic agonists (Crawford and Zimmerman, 2011 and van Harten et al., 1998). Essential tremors may be associated with a mild dysfunction of the cerebellum (Bhidayasiri, 2005). Intention tremors occur during directed movement, result from a dysfunction of the cerebellum (Bhidayasiri, 2005) and can be caused by trauma, tumor, stroke, infection but also toxicity. Antiarrythmic agents, benzodiazepines and cyclosporins are reported to cause intention tremors (Crawford & Zimmerman, 2011). In drug development, an expert neurologist is typically not present in the animal room to evaluate tremors at the time of occurrence. In selleck chemical this context, synchronized high-resolution video-EEG may be useful to investigate the potential correlation between tremors and abnormal EEG activity but also to define the nature of tremors and finally assess any safety concern. Tremors are observed relatively commonly prior to seizure onset in non-rodents,

including dogs and non-human primates but also in most rats as observed in the current study. While video monitoring is generally useful, it may not capture subtle MycoClean Mycoplasma Removal Kit premonitory clinical signs such as nystagmus, facial twitches or high frequency tremors and the presence of an expert observer at selected timepoints (e.g. around Tmax) can be valuable in some cases. Clinical observations including ataxia, head shaking, nystagmus, head tilt and nausea/vomiting can

be signs of a drug induced vestibular syndrome. Approved drugs such as metronidazole may elicit signs of vestibular toxicity (Sammut, 2010). As clinical manifestations of a vestibular syndrome may be similar to pre-ictal and ictal related clinical signs to technical staff, EEG monitoring can serve to differentiate seizures from drug-induced vestibular toxicity. The distinction between these two clinical conditions (vestibular toxicity vs. seizure) has a major impact on risk assessment as seizures are recognized as life-threatening adverse events and a vestibular syndrome is not. In addition to video-EEG, toxicokinetic (TK) evaluations generally constitute an important component of non-clinical seizure liability testing. Doses allowed in clinical trials will initially be limited by the human equivalent of the animal plasma concentrations that were achieved at the highest safe dose. The TK investigations will aim to capture plasma levels at seizure onset, around premonitory clinical signs, but also in the absence of abnormal EEG or clinical signs (i.e. at NOAEL).