Pituitary-Adrenocortical Hormone Influences on Multiple Units in the Brainstem and Forebrain Structures

Abstract

There is growing evidence in the literature that the unit firing frequency changes in diverse subcortical structures during various stages of vigilance and sleep-wakefulness cycle. According to these observations the unit activity is high during attentive behaviour, it declines to a low level during slow-wave sleep and in paradoxical sleep it increases to higher levels than those observed during attention (Evarts et al. 1962, Goodman and Mann 1967, Guzmán-Flores and Alcaraz 1970, Huttenlocker 1961, Korányi et al. 1971a, Mori et al. 1968, Podvoll and Goodman 1967, Winters et al. 1967). It is also well proven that the changes of multiple unit activity at the midbrain reticular formation reflect the states of excitation or inhibition of the central nervous system (Mori et al. 1968, Winters et al. 1967). Recently a high correlation was shown between the variability of multiple unit activity and different emotional stages, rage reaction, aggressive behaviour, orienting reflex and diverse phases of attentive behaviour (Guzmán-Flores and Alcaraz 1970, Guzmán-Flores and Garcia-Castells 1970, Garcia-Castells and Guzmán-Flores 1970).

This work was partially supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation

IBRO/UNESCO Fellow in 1970/71 at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, UNAM de México, México.