The goal of such research is the delineation of different brain regions and/or functions involved in volitional as against nonvolitional behavior. A positive answer to such research could contribute toward a certain objectification of volition (" free will").

The subjects and the mechanism employed involve a few seizure-kindled monkeys. The neuro-physiological mechanism of seizure kindling is based on intermittent exposure to subthreshold stimuli (electrical, chemical or experiential(!).

Ref.: (GV Goddard (1967). Development of epileptic seizures through brain stimulation of low intensity. Nature 214:1020-1021).

In lower mammals kindling evokes convulsion, but in primates prevailingly nonconvulsive behavioral seizures. Therefore primates are chosen as subjects.

Ref. JA Wada (1978). The clinical relevance of kindling: Species, brain sites and seizure susceptibility. In KE Livingston & O. Hornykiewicz (eds). Limbic mechanism, the continuing evolution of the limbic system concept. (pp 369-388). New York: Plenum).

Experimental kindling requires no brain damage and leaves none

Ref. DP Cain (1992)/ Kindling and the amygdala. In JP Aggleton (ed), The Amygdala (pp 539-560). New York : Wiley.

A few human., inadvertently kindled cases have been published in the literature.

So far 24 cases of nonconvulsive behavioral seizures in humans have been proposed and presented in Courts. All had been social loners, who talked to nobody about their hurts, ruminating their memories of mild/moderate stresses. (Such a situation is analogous to exposure to kindling-eliciting experiential stimuli, the last of which appears to be a highly individualized trigger stimulus (of any modality, actual or symbolic), unwittingly and by chance presented by the victim-to-be, typically a stranger).

Examples: 24 such patients, diagnosed with the proposed "Limbic Psychotic Trigger Reaction" (LPTR) , had previously been non-aggressive. non-impulsive, fully employed . Their sudden out-of-character acts with bizarre (c 20 min-long) so far been felonious acts that had come to evaluation via the Courts (by-passing probably many more paroxysmal "merely" socially bizarre but not punishable misbehaviors.

LPTR is a new sub-form of partial epilepsies with a primate model and seizure kindling as its implicated mechanism .

Ref. e,g,. Pontius, Neurocase 2008;1(1):29-43 (RG profile, full text.

In that paper, p. 43, the here suggested experiment with monkeys has been briefly proposed, inspired by an actual, internationally documented case of LPTR.

Ref. AA Pontius. Serial murderer learns to regain volition by recognizing the aura of his partial seizures of limbic psychotic trigger reaction, Clinical Case Studies 2002;1:324-341.

This man had still retained his ability to act with intent and voluntarily during his aural phase of LPTR , demonstrated by still having been able to remove himself volitionally from the ambience of his frightening "warning signals", his aural symptoms. (That ambience most probably contained his individual trigger stimulus,as yet unknown to him). By his volitional act of removing himself, he most probably aborted a full kindled seizure, during which volitional behavior would have become impossible as the ictal and post-ictal phases would have followed automatically, as had been the case in his past bizarre "murders".

Procedure:

While seizure-kindled monkeys are being monitored, (in "replication" of the 2002 LPTR case) it is essential to prevent (within c 5 min) the progression of the observable and measurable (skin conductance, pulse, breathing etc) aural signs of autonomic arousal. Thus, if kindling had been elicited by intermittent exposure to subthreshold chemical stimuli, a fast acting antagonist has to be administered. If electrical stimuli had been applied, these must be discontinued immediately and the monkeys must be removed from that ambience.

It is expected that such procedures will abort the kindled seizures and that the monkeys will resume their normal "volitional" behavior. By contrast, their controls, whose kindling stimulation had not been discontinued but had been left

unchanged will show automatic seizure progression, characterized by nonconvulsive behavioral seizures with "out-of-species" strange behavior, likely to include indications of visual hallucinations (by grasping in the air as if for food)

Neurological effect expected:

It is expected that the monkeys' monitoring will reveal differences in brain functioning between the experimental and the control group during the few minutes between aura and ictus of LPTR. It appears to be not unreasonable to interpret such potential differences in brain functioning as indicative of certain attributes of volitional as against nonvolitional behavior.