Our working hypothesis is that constant interpulse interval (IPI) electrical stimulation would resonate with endogenous epileptogenic reverberating circuits, inducing seizures, whereas a random interinterval electrical stimulation protocol would promote desynchronization of such neural networks, producing an anticonvulsant effect. Male Wistar rats were stereotaxically implanted with a bipolar electrical stimulation electrode in the amygdala. Pentylenetetrazole (10 mg/ml/min) was continuously infused through an intravenous catheter to induce seizures while four different patterns of temporally coded electrical stimulation were applied: periodic stimulation (PS), pseudo-randomized IPI stimulation (LH), restrictively randomized IPI stimulation (IH), and bursts of 20-ms IPIs (burst). PS decreased the pentylenetetrazole threshold to forelimb clonus, whereas IH increased the threshold to forelimb clonus and to generalized tonic-clonic seizures. We hypothesize that PS facilitates forelimb clonus by reverberating with epileptogenic circuits in the limbic system, whereas IH delays forelimb clonus and generalized tonic-clonic seizures by desynchronizing the epileptic neural networks in the forebrain-midbrain-hindbrain circuits. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.