Stimulation of a kindled amygdala focus for 60 min resulted in the development of status epilepticus (SE) in one of 4 forms: ambulatory, masticatory, immobile or generalized. Each of these forms was characterized by its own frequency of electrographic afterdischarge (AD) and anatomic pattern of [14C]2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) autoradiographic activity. After 1 h of SE, most of the rats exhibited ambulatory or masticatory SE, which decreased in severity over time (5-10 h), and ended often in the immobile SE pattern. After 1 h of SE, the 2-DG activity of the rats with ambulatory SE rats was largely unilateral, and concentrated in the kindled basolateral amygdala and its limbic projections, while the 2-DG pattern in the masticatory SE rats was similar, but bilateral, and included the dorsal hippocampus. These masticatory SE rats also had a strikingly large hypoactive area in the kindled amygdala. After 5 and 10 h of SE, the 2-DG activity of all rats was bilateral but, in the immobile SE cases, was very weak and restricted. In addition to the consistent limbic involvement of the ambulatory, masticatory and immobile SE groups, the 2 rats, at 1 h, with generalized SE showed an expanded neural network with strong bilateral 2-DG activity in the anterior neocortex, striatum and thalamus. Except for focal hypoactivity in the masticatory SE group, these various forms of SE, and their associated patterns of 2-DG activity, largely approximated those forms of SE and patterns of activity induced in normal, non-kindled rats.