Neural organization for emotional expression / Walter B. Cannon.

  • Walter Bradford Cannon
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neural organization for emotional expression / Walter B. Cannon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the cerebrum anterior to it are excluded from action. Obviously that part of the neural organization which direcily sends forth the rage-response lies posterior to the section through the mesenceph- alon, i. e., in the remnant of the mid-brain or in the medulla. In these decerebrate animals, however, spontaneous exhibitions of sham rage are rare; relatively strong stimulation is required to evoke them, and, when evoked, they are likely to be isolated items of the total reaction and may be associated at times with in- consistent elements, such as violent clawing accompanied by purring. This is in marked contrast to the intense and complete manifestation of fury which may be shown by decorticate animals. The difference in behavior of the two preparations must be referred to some part of the brain-stem lacking in the decerebrate, but present in the decorticate animal. In other words, although various parts of the rage-response can be activated by afferent impulses in the bulbospinal animal, the integration of these responses in an energetic and typically widespread outburst of rage appears to be controlled by a superior center. Britton and I left untouched almost all of the basal gray matter of the anterior brain-stem. Where among these basal ganglia does the dominating center reside? This question has been the subject of an investiga- tion by one of my collaborators, Dr. Bard. The method employed by Bard was that of ablating various amounts of the brain-stem after decortication, and studying thereafter the behavior of the preparation. He found that typical sham rage, accompanied by vigorous discharge of sympathetic impulses recurs in spontaneous fits or outbursts after both cerebral hemispheres, the corpora striata and the anterior half of the diencephalon have been removed completely (along dash line, Figure 1). The additional removal of the posterior half of the diencephalon promptly abolishes the spontaneous activity; but since it persists after much of the dorsal portion of the region has been cut away (along dotted line, Figure 1), the dominating center, we may infer, is situated near the base, probably in the sub- thalamus. Its size in the cat is less than a fourth of a cubic centi- meter. In recent years considerable evidence has accumulated, pointing to the thalamic region as the central station of the sympathetic system. Isenschmid and his collaborators (10) have localized there the mechanism for temperature regulation—a mechanism controlling heat-production and heat-loss via sym- pathetic channels. And Karplus and Kreid] (11) have observed that local stimulation of the same region in anaesthetized animals causes a sympathetic discharge. Bard’s observations bring strong support to the conclusion that in the subthalamus there exists an integrating center for sympathetic activities. Thus in the
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