RÔLE OF THE HYPOTHALAMUS IN REGULATION OF BLOOD PRESSURE

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Abstract
The present investigation was undertaken to obtain adequate evidence either for or against the existence in mammals of a vasomotor mechanism superimposed on the medullary vasomotor center. There is little doubt regarding the existence of a medullary center in the floor of the fourth ventricle through which afferent nervous stimuli and possibly the influences of hormones act. Lately, a center in the hypothalamus has been postulated which would theoretically function as a regulator of blood pressure, acting especially in response to psychic and emotional states. The possible dysfunction of such a center, particularly in an abnormal sensitiveness to psychic or emotional stimuli, could obviously be an important pathogenic factor in the production of clinical "essential" hypertension. In fact, Kahler1 popularized the concept of a "primary central" type of hypertension due to hyperirritability of a hypothalamic vasomotor center. His evidence, based largely on irregular changes in blood pressure following lumbar