Brain Catecholamines: Relation to Defense Reaction Evoked by Acute Brainstem Transection in Cat

Abstract

The concentration of noradrenaline, but not serotonin, in the brainstem of cats is reduced 3 hours after the production of a defense reaction by supracollicular decerebration, even when movements and changes in blood pressure are abolished by transection of the spinal cord. After midcollicular decerebration, which does not elicit a defense reaction, noradrenaline concentrations do not change. The decrease in its concentration accompanying the defense reaction produtced by brain lesions probably reflects activity, in this behavior, of neturons containinig noradrenaline.