OVARIAN STIMULATION FOLLOWING CEREBRAL LESIONS IN FERRETS

Abstract

SUMMARY: Bilateral electrolytic lesions have been made in the thalamus, caudate nucleus or adjacent areas, in fourteen anoestrous ferrets; in another ten animals control operations were performed which were identical except that an electrolytic current was not passed. Most of the experimental animals came into heat precociously. This effect was independent of the size, position, or even the presence of an electrolytic lesion, but depended only upon operative interference with the cerebrum. It was concluded that these procedures acted as a non-specific stimulus for the production of gonadotrophic hormone and that more specific interpretations of the results of similar investigations involving central nervous lesions were, therefore, not necessarily valid.