STRYCHNINE PAROXYSMS IN BRAIN STEM: I. ANATOMICAL DISTRIBUTION

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Abstract
If small doses of strychnine are given intravenously to the unanesthetized cat, prolonged electrical paroxysms are seen in the ecg of the cerebellum but not of the cerebrum. This activity approximates 200 microvolts at 18/second. In 14 curarized cats such paroxysms were incited and their continuation into the brain stem was mapped through the use of bipolar concentric electrodes recording through an ink-writing oscillograph. Multiple electrodes were stereotaxically oriented as a gang, and their positions verified histologically. The core of this activity conspicuously resided in the brachium conjunctivum, red nucleus, fields of Forel; caudally it scattered into the superior and inferior colliculi, midline bulbar reticular formation, inferior olive and vestibular nuclei. The ventralis lateralis, a known thalamic termination of the superior cerebellar peduncle, was excluded from the paroxysm as was the central thalamic nuclear group. Certain systems did not actively participate as a whole, namely, the pontine and pyramidal.

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