EXPERIMENTAL LESIONS IN THE TUBER CINEREUM OF THE DOG

Abstract

Certain animals operated on by one of us,1 in a previous investigation concerned with the nuclei of the subthalamus, exhibited periodic convulsions following the operation. It was noted that in those animals there was always injury to the region of the tuber cinereum. Following unilateral lesions in the tuber cinereum, the symptoms were so generalized and complex and the various symptoms combined in such a uniform manner that it seemed impossible to explain the convulsion on the basis of specific nuclei and fiber connection for each symptom (a center for pupillary dilation, one for salivation, another for vasoconstriction, another mechanism for the muscular spasm, etc.). On the contrary, it seemed more likely that there was some more generalized mechanism in the tuber cinereum which exerted an influence on the body by means of substances carried in the blood stream. It seemed possible that this might be in the form of