Neural Control of ACTH Secretion: Effect of Acute Decerebration in the Rat1

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Abstract
Serial ablation of the brain rostral to the superior colliculus was performed, leaving the pituitary intact. At intervals varying from 30 min to 72 hr postoperatively, corticosterone was measured either in the peripheral blood or in the adrenal effluent with or without a standard stress. The removal of the cerebral cortex and subjacent brain in the rat did not lead to a sustained increase in peripheral plasma steroid concentration. It thus seems doubtful that the pituitary is released from inhibition by brain removal in the rat as has been reported to be the case in the dog. The minimal amount of tissue permitting approximately normal pituitary-adrenocortical activation appeared to be the median eminence-stalk-pituitary complex.