A DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF THE MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN ACUTE ACTIVATION OF THE PITUITARY–ADRENOCORTICAL COLD

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Abstract
The participation of the psychic or the somatic component in an acute cold exposure of rats was followed more exactly than before by means of a simple device—the "microclimator"—which allows immediate temperature changes in the experimental environment to be made without altering any of its remaining parameters. Changes in adrenocortical response were followed dynamically in the course of 1 to 6 repetitions of individual stimuli by means of three indicators measured simultaneously (left adrenal ascorbic acid, right adrenal corticosterone, and peripheral plasma corticosterone). A marked dissociation in the adrenal response to psychic stress was found according to adrenal ascorbic acid depletion and (or) corticosterone changes in plasma and the adrenal. In addition, a favorable adaptation effect of the psychic component on the complex acute cold exposure was found in the responses of the adrenal cortex to single as well as repeated exposures.