Cognitive impairment in the WAG/Rij rat absence model is secondary to absence seizures and depressive-like behavior

To date, comorbidities remain an urgent unmet need in epilepsy field. Experimental animal models of epilepsy represent a valid tool not only to study epilepsy but also its associated comorbidities1. The WAG/Rij rat is a well-established genetically-based model of absence epilepsy with depressive-like comorbidity, in which recently was also detected cognitive impairment2, 3. Based on this background, the aim of this study was to clarify whether this cognitive decline is secondary or not to absence seizures and/or Depressive-like behavior.