Salivary responses to cortical and sciatic stimulation

¹ Department of Neurological Science, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia

In cats under ether and Flaxedil, submandibular salivation in response to electrical stimulation of the central cut end of the sciatic nerve and cortical loci on sigmoid gyrus and gyrus proreus has been evoked. These responses were obtained in animals with solely sympathetic or parasympathetic innervation of the gland intact. The ascending path in the cord (for parasympathetic and sympathetic effects) runs in the dorsal part of the lateral funiculus. In acute animals, the relay for both effects takes place somewhere between the upper cervical level of the spinal cord and the midcollicular level of the brainstem. A segmental activation of sympathetic salivary responses may have been masked by autonomic spinal shock. The excitable cortical area overlaps those yielding vasomotor responses, adrenal medullary activity and bladder contractions. The descending pathway for sympathetic effects runs in the spinal cord (at the cervical level) at the junction of the dorsal and ventral parts of the lateral funiculus, a region also containing descending vasomotor fibers.