Relationship of Emotional Behaviors Induced by Electrical Stimulation of the Hypothalamus to Changes in EKG, Heart, Stomach, Adrenal Glands, and Thymus

Abstract

The relationships of hypothalamically elicited emotional behaviors to their accompanying pathophysiological effects were examined as a model of how complex "emotional behaviors" may be related to fundamental psychosomatic disorders. Twenty-two unanesthetized adult cats were studied. EKG alterations and histological changes in the heart, stomach, adrenal glands, and thymus were related to the specific stereotypical emotional behaviors that could be elicited by hypothalamic stimulation in tamed subjects. Restlessness, threat, and searching-biting behaviors were evoked by electrical stimulation of the anteromedial, ventromedial, and lateral hypothalamus, respectively. The occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias, ST and/or T (ST-T) changes in the EKG, histological damage to myocardium, gastric erosion, and adrenal hyperplasia were generally observed in the restlessness and threat groups but not in the searching-biting group. The pathophysiological effects were similar in the restlessness and threat groups with no specific EKG change or organ effect attributable to either site of stimulation. Hypothalamically elicited restlessness or threat behaviors in cats are each associated with cardiac, gastric, and adrenal pathophysiologies.

Changes in the Leukocyte Distribution and Surface Expression of Adhesion Molecules Accompanied with Hypothalamically Induced Restlessness in the Cat

“…Our series of experiments indicated that hypothalamically elicited restlessness accompanies the changes in the endocrine system, activation of the sympathetic nervous system and some kinds of organ damage [5][6][7][8][9][10]. These findings are the same as the findings which can be observed after the exposure of normal subjects to a stressor.…”

“…We have reported that the same responses in the endocrine system [7,8,10] and in the autonomic nervous system [5,6,[8][9][10] were observed in this model of restlessness as those seen in other stress models. In the present experiment, we tried to examine whether or not the hypothalamically induced restless behavior accompanies the same stress reaction of the immunological function as seen in other stress models.…”

“…Moreover, restlessness has been found to accompany pathophysiological responses which are the same as those observed under stress conditions according to our previous series of experiments [5][6][7][8][9][10]. As a result, it is suggested that this animal model is useful as a psychological stress model.…”

“…AMH has been reported to send efferent projections to peripheral organs mostly via the central gray matter of the midbrain, parabrachial nucleus and locus ceruleus [46], which are the regions related to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. During restlessness which is elicited by the stimulation of AMH marked mydriasis, tachycardia and elevation of blood pressure are observed, which are also symptoms of the activation of the sympathetic nervous system [6,9,10], and thus the plasma level of catecholamines would be expected to be elevated. Further studies are called for to elucidate the possible effect of catecholamines on the results obtained in our present study.…”

Effect of cognitive enrichment on behavior, mucosal immunity and upper respiratory disease of shelter cats rated as frustrated on arrival

“…S-IgA is the most abundant mucosal antibody and is necessary for protection against pathogens that are inhaled or ingested (Stokes and Waly, 2006), particularly in multi-cat environments where such pathogens are found in high concentration (Pedersen et al, 2004). When induced by electrostimulation of the anteromedial hypothalamus, frustration (labelled as restlessness by the authors) had important pathophysiological and immunological effects such as elevated cortisol and cathecolamine, arrhythmia, increased responses of lymphocytes to phytohemagglutinin (Mori et al, 2001), and gastric and cardiac lesions (Kojima et al, 1996).…”