The effects of certain neuroal lesions in the rat on the reaction to a noxious stimulus II. Septal nuclei and fornix components

✍ Scribed by M. Lyon; J. M. Harrison

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1959
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 818 KB
• Volume: 111
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9967
• DOI: 10.1002/cne.901110106

✦ Synopsis

Recent speculation has assigned to certain rhinencephalic structures a role in affective behavior. Included among these structurcs are thc limbic cortex, hippocampus, fornix components and the septal region. I n the first paper of this series (Lyon and Harrison, '59) the effect of lesions of the rostra1 limbic cortex on reactivity to noxious stimulation was examined. The purpose of the present experiment was to determine the cffccts of lesions of the septal region and fornix components upon similar behavior.

Spiegel et al. ('40) and Brady and Nauta ('53, '55) have reported that lesions which include the septal region produce a general behavioral change termed "rage " and "increased emotionality," respectively. If these behavioral changes are more than a change of strength in a number of reflexes, it might be expected that conditioned responses sustained by the use of noxious stimuli would actually be increased in strength following similar lesions. However, Brady and Nauta actually found that septal lesions may produce a transient loss in some animals of a "conditioned emotional response." Further-