Hypothalamic Vasopressor and Vesicopressor Pathways

Abstract

ANATOMIC investigations of hypothalamic pathways have consisted heretofore of study of normal material (Ban,¹Bodian,²Cajal,³Crosby and Woodburne,⁴Gurdjian,⁵Ingram,⁶Krieg,⁷and Rioch⁸) or of experimental degeneration (Ban and Zyo,⁹Beattie and associates,¹⁰Morin,¹¹Guillery,¹²Nauta,¹³and Zyo and associates¹⁴). While detailed knowledge of connections has been acquired in this manner, little is known of the functions which these pathways mediate. An equally large number of stimulation studies of the hypothalamus have provided a wealth of information on visceral responses mediated by this area, but correlation between the functional results and the structural substrate is uncertain, in large part because in many instances the precise locus of the stimulus site with regard to a given pathway cannot be established with assurance. In this investigation, which is an attempt to obtain a closer correlation between the