Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The Journal of Physiology logoLink to The Journal of Physiology
. 1981 May;314:189–194. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1981.sp013700

Responses of pontine units to skin-temperature changes in the guinea-pig

P Hinckel 1, K Schröder-Rosenstock 1
PMCID: PMC1249426  PMID: 7310690

Abstract

1. The responses of fifty-five single units to changes in skin temperature were recorded in twenty-three guinea-pigs anaesthetized with urethane. Skin-temperature changes were induced by changing the temperature of the water-perfused support plate of the stereotaxic apparatus and that of the double-walled Perspex jacket that was put on the support plate.

2. Thirty-three units were stereotaxically and histologically verified as being within a circumscribed area of the pontine dorsomedial reticular formation (subcoeruleus region). Twenty-one units were located in the surrounding areas, and one unit in the nucleus raphé magnus region.

3. Twenty-seven of thirty-three recorded subcoeruleus units were specifically excited by cooling of the abdominal or leg skin, whereas only five units were non-thermoresponsive and one unit was warm-responsive. The cold-responsive units had peak activity at skin temperatures between 22 and 29 °C, in accordance with the maximum activity in cutaneous cold-receptors.

4. A markedly different distribution of units was found in the surrounding areas. Only four units were cold-responsive. Thirteen units were non-thermoresponsive, and four units were warm-responsive.

5. The cold-responsive subcoeruleus units were situated in regions which are known to contain accumulations of noradrenergic cell bodies, and to project to hypothalamic neurones. Electrical stimulation of these regions is known to cause excitatory metabolic responses in unanaesthetized guinea-pigs. It is concluded that part of the cutaneous cold-afferents projects to hypothalamic thermointegrative neurones via noradrenergic pathways that ascend from these subcoeruleus regions.

Full text

PDF
189

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bobillier P., Seguin S., Petitjean F., Salvert D., Touret M., Jouvet M. The raphe nuclei of the cat brain stem: a topographical atlas of their efferent projections as revealed by autoradiography. Brain Res. 1976 Sep 3;113(3):449–486. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(76)90050-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brück K., Hinckel P. Thermoregulatory noradrenergic and serotonergic pathways to hypothalamic units. J Physiol. 1980 Jul;304:193–202. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1980.sp013319. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dickenson A. H. Specific responses of rat raphé neurones to skin temperature. J Physiol. 1977 Dec;273(1):277–293. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1977.sp012094. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hori T., Nakayama T. Effects of biogenic amines on central thermoresponsive neurones in the rabbit. J Physiol. 1973 Jul;232(1):71–85. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1973.sp010257. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Iggo A. Cutaneous thermoreceptors in primates and sub-primates. J Physiol. 1969 Feb;200(2):403–430. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1969.sp008701. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Jell R. M. Responses of rostral hypothalamic neurones to peripheral temperature and to amines. J Physiol. 1974 Jul;240(2):295–307. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1974.sp010611. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Maeda T., Shimizu N. Projections ascendantes du locus coeruleus et d'autres neurones aminergiques pontiques auniveau du prosencéphale du rat. Brain Res. 1972 Jan 14;36(1):19–35. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(72)90763-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Palkovits M., Jacobowitz D. M. Topographic atlas of catecholamine and acetylcholinesterase-containing neurons in the rat brain. II. Hindbrain (mesencephalon, rhombencephalon). J Comp Neurol. 1974 Sep 1;157(1):29–42. doi: 10.1002/cne.901570104. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Palkovits M., Richardson J. S., Jacobowitz D. M. A histochemical study of ventral tegmental acetylcholinesterase-containing pathway following destructive lesions. Brain Res. 1974 Nov 29;81(1):183–188. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(74)90487-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Perkins M. N., Whitehead S. A. Neural connexions between the medial forebrain bundle, the preoptic area and the basal hypothalamus in the rat: an electrophysiological study. J Physiol. 1979 Jun;291:443–456. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1979.sp012824. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Szelényi Z., Zeisberger E., Brück K. A hypothalamic alpha-adrenergic mechanism mediating the thermogenic response to electrical stimulation of the lower brainstem in the guinea pig. Pflugers Arch. 1977 Jul 29;370(1):19–23. doi: 10.1007/BF00707940. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. TINDAL J. S. THE FOREBRAIN OF THE GUINEA PIG IN STEREOTAXIC COORDINATES. J Comp Neurol. 1965 Apr;124:259–266. doi: 10.1002/cne.901240210. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Zeisberger E., Brück K. Central effects of noradrenaline on the control of body temperature in the guinea-pig. Pflugers Arch. 1971;322(2):152–166. doi: 10.1007/BF00592295. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Physiology are provided here courtesy of The Physiological Society

RESOURCES