Physiological mechanisms of action of chlordiazepoxide in cats

✍ Scribed by Arturo Morillo; Alvin M. Revzin; Thomas Knauss

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1962
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 755 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0033-3158
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00408323

✦ Synopsis

Acute and chronic experiments were performed on 18 cats to investigate the action of chlordiazepoxide. With electrodes stimulating the lateral nucleus of the amygdala and recording from the basal hippocampus the magnitude and time course of the produced changes upon the electrical and behavioral responses were studied. The effects upon the diffuse thalamocortical system were also investigated by stimulating the nucleus centralis lateralis of thalamus and recording the recruiting response from the pial surface of the suprasylvan gyrus.

Chlordiazepoxide showed a strong depressant action upon the hippoeampal response and a delayed, "slow motion" response to stimulation of the amygdala in the chronic preparations. The diffuse thalamocortical system was not affected. These results are discussed on the basis of anatomic and physiologic data and interpreted as indicating a site of action of the drug chiefly at amygdalohippocampal level.