Some Aspects of Cortical Function

Cloake, P. C. P.

doi:10.1093/brain/75.3.273

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Until comparatively recently the cerebral cortex was regarded as of subsidiary or negligible impoitance in relation to the autonomic nervous system, but it is now recognized that there is both motor and sensory autonomic representation in the cortex, with overlapping and close integration of somatic, autonomic, and other cortical areas, a fact explaining the common association of somatic and visceral effects and the correlation between somatic, autonomic, and mental states. Evidence on these matters has been obtained mainly by comparative researches, and the observations reported by many workers on the autonomic effects produced by stimulation, section, or ablation of various parts of the brain and cord have been reviewed or evaluated by Spiegel (1932), Hoff (1940), Miller (1942), Gellhorn (1943), Bucy (1949), Walshe (1951), Cloake (1952), and others. They reveal how gradually the importance of the frontal cortex, hypothalamus, and brain stem in controlling visceral activities was established.…”

Section: Higher Centres Controlling Visceral Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Innervation of the Heart

Mitchell¹

1953

Heart

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Clinical and research workers are occasionally confronted by problems concerning cardiac innervation that may not be answered by the scanty details given in textbooks, and special articles usually deal with only one facet of the subject. A resume of available information may therefore prove helpful.The heart is innervated by both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, and afferents from the parietal pericardium are also conveyed through the intercostal and phrenic nerves. The autonomic nerves, like the somatic, are under the control of higher centres. HIGHER CENTRES CONTROLLING VISCERAL ACTIVITIESThe idea that visceral functions are controlled by higher centres was expressed by Willis (1664), but despite many intervening suggestive observations Hughlings Jackson (1873-74) was the first to state clearly, as a result of his clinical and pathological observations, that visceral activities must be represented at various levels in the central nervous system. Until comparatively recently the cerebral cortex was regarded as of subsidiary or negligible impoitance in relation to the autonomic nervous system, but it is now recognized that there is both motor and sensory autonomic representation in the cortex, with overlapping and close integration of somatic, autonomic, and other cortical areas, a fact explaining the common association of somatic and visceral effects and the correlation between somatic, autonomic, and mental states. Evidence on these matters has been obtained mainly by comparative researches, and the observations reported by many workers on the autonomic effects produced by stimulation, section, or ablation of various parts of the brain and cord have been reviewed or evaluated by Spiegel (1932), Hoff (1940), Miller (1942), Gellhorn (1943), Bucy (1949), Walshe (1951), Cloake (1952), and others. They reveal how gradually the importance of the frontal cortex, hypothalamus, and brain stem in controlling visceral activities was established. Recently, information about autonomic representation in the human brain has begun to accumulate as a result of clinical, operative, and pathological observations (Penfield and Rasmussen, 1950;Meyer et. al., 1947;Freeman andWatts, 1947, 1948;and Beck, 1950). These observations on the human brain tend to confirm in several respects the findings in animals, although the localization of centres, the pathways of the tracts involved, and the degree of response to stimulation are not always similar in man and animals. It can be stated, however, with reasonable certainty that the frontal lobes influence autonomic activities. This cortical participation in the control of visceral innervation is shared by subcortical centres in the hypothalamus, and perhaps in the corpus striatum and the anterior lobe of the cerebellum. These activities are correlated and integrated by two-way cortico-hypothalamic interconnections (Le Gros Clark, 1948

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Section: Higher Centres Controlling Visceral Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%