Localized thermal changes evoked in the brain by visual and auditory stimulation

doi:10.1016/0014-4886(67)90108-2

Experimental Neurology

Volume 17, Issue 3, March 1967, Pages 293-312

https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4886(67)90108-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

Localized thermal responses evoked in discrete nuclei of the brain by sensory stimulation were recorded in anesthetized and awake cats. In anesthetized animals, low-frequency light flashes (2–12 flash/sec) produced temperature increases, while high flash rates (52–62 flash/sec) and steady light generally evoked temperature decreases in the lateral geniculate nucleus. Under chronic conditions, all visual stimuli produced temperature increases although smaller responses were evoked by high flash rates and steady light than by low flash rates. Auditory stimuli, such as tones, clicks and random noise, produced temperature increases in the inferior colliculus. The mean-square electrical activity was also recorded and correlated well with the evoked thermal activity although exceptions occurred. Comparison of the temperatures of the brain and the carotid blood, and the use of a Gibbs heated probe indicated that evoked thermal responses are due to changes both in local neural metabolic heat production and in local blood flow.

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¹: Supported by contract SD-193 from the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance of J. C. Vanagas, J. A. Bridges, and Rose Ellen Morrell. We also wish to thank P. Beckman of High Temperature Instruments Corp., Philadelphia, for manufacturing, to specification, the various probes used in this study. The paper is based on a thesis submitted by the senior author, now at the Department of Anatomy, University of California, Los Angeles, for the Ph.D. degree at McGill University.

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Localized thermal changes evoked in the brain by visual and auditory stimulation

Abstract

Exptl. Neurol.

Electroencephalog. Clin. Neurophysiol.

Exptl. Neurol.

The positive and negative heat production associated with a nerve impulse

The initial heat production associated with the nerve impulse in crustacean and mammalian nonmyelinated nerve fibers

J. Physiol. London

A method for the quantification of tonic activity in the nervous system

Arch. Ital. Biol.

The effects of flicker and steady illumination on the activity of the cat visual system

Arch. Ital. Biol.

Respiration of local brain regions: technique and applications

Am. J. Physiol.

Metabolism of isolated perfused cat's brain

Quart. J. Exptl. Physiol.

The comparative anatomy and embryology of the capillary bed of the central nervous system

Res. Publ. Assoc. Res. Nervous Mental Disease

Some factors affecting oxygen tension in the brain and other organs

Thermistors for temperature measurements

Neurochemistry