The genitals of male and female rats were tactilely stimulated (glass rod) for 10 successive days beginning on postnatal Days 5, 15, or 35; handled but nonstimulated litter mates served as the reference groups. Limbic seizures were induced by a single systemic injection of lithium and pilocarpine when the rats were adults. The genitally stimulated female rats displayed a lower seizure threshold (as inferred from shorter seizure-onset times) relative to their cage mates. The single largest effect occurred for those females which had been stimulated after the vagina had opened (postnatal 35–45 days).
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