Evidence for A Region Specifically Sensitive to Electroanesthesia in the Brain Stem of the Cat

Abstract

Since the turn of the century, it has been known that electrical current, when passed through an animal's brain can produce a state of areflexia. This electrical ‘anesthesia’ can be achieved by means of a variety of current waveforms such as sine waves, biased rectangular pulses, random pulses, and by frequencies ranging from 50 to 120,000 cps. To further understand the phenomenon of EA, it was important to determine whether there is a specific region (or regions) in the brain, which when acted upon by the electric current is responsible for the areflexia obtained when current flows through the entire brain. As a working hypothesis for the present study it was assumed that there is one such region and an attempt was made to localize it.