Abstract: Immature rats of 18--19 days of postnatal life received repetitive elec-troconvulsive shocks (ECS) for four weeks (twice a day). As compared withpaired control littermates,these animals showed poor ability to learn theavoidance maze discrimination as well as the food reward discrimination whenthey were 48--68 days old. The derangement became much more obvious when ECS was given atearlier days.(14 days postnatally). However, no impairment on learning andmemory could be found when ECS was given after they became adult rats(60 days after birth). These results seem to be consistent with the clinical observation that theoccurence of epileptic seizureg during the first year of life may be of ominousprognostic significance for the intellectual development of the child.

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