Experimental Gastroduodenal Lesions Induced by Stimulation of the Brain

Abstract

Experiments were made on 19 monkeys in which stimulation was applied to the hypothalamus (5-8 V., 20 cps, 5 T, 2 minutes) 4 times a day for 30 to 86 days. For control 41 monkeys were studied under similar conditions they did not, however, receive stimulus as indicated above. Of the text animals, 3 developed focal lesions in the pyloric antrum of the stomach, 3 developed ulcers of the duodenum, and 2 exhibited diffuse atrophic changes of the stomach at autopsy. Stimulus points in these animals were located in the low midline hypothalamus from preoptic to intermammillary areas. The point of stimulation in remaining 11 test animals was outside this zone. A possible parallel exists between these experimental lesions induced by stimulation of the brain and the etiology of peptic ulceration in man.