LOCALIZATION OF BRAIN-REGIONS CONCERNED IN INHIBITION OF SHIVERING BY TRAUMA

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 58  (1) , 50-56
Abstract
The effect on the inhibition of shivering by limb ischemia of small 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions in the hypothalamus was studied in rats. The injection of 6-OHDA into the posterior part of the hypothalamus in the neighborhood of the nucleus dorsomedialis or into the ventral ascending catecholaminergic bundle caudal to that nucleus prevented the depression of the ambient temperature threshold for the onset of shivering which usually occurs during hind-limb ischemia and lowered the slope of the regression line relating the intensity of shivering to ambient temperature. In rats not treated with 6-OHDA this slope is unaffected by limb ischemia. These lesions reproduced the changes seen when 6-OHDA was injected into the lateral cerebral ventricle. Lesions in other parts of the hypothalamus were without effect. The inhibitory catecholaminergic synapses are situated in the posterior part of the hypothalamus and the impulses reach them from nerve cells in the hind-brain via the ventral bundle. The lesions produced in these experiments had little effect on thermoregulation in non-injured rats.