Some sensory influences on savage (affective) behavior in cats

¹ Departments of Anatomy, Neurology, and Pharmacology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
² Department of Anatomy, Neurology, and Pharmacology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

Since it is well established that cats rendered "savage" following bilateral lesions in the ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei manifest this type of behavior only when an external stimulus, e.g., tactile, auditory, or visual, is directed at them, a study was made of the degree to which some of the long ascending sensory systems participate in this phenomenon. After the hypothalamic lesions were made and the animals exhibited such adverse behavior, they were subjected to secondary bilateral lesions of the medial lemniscus and spinothalamic tracts in the lateral mesencephalic tegmentum. It was found that following destruction of these tracts (including part of the magnocellular division of the medial geniculate bodies) most animals no longer responded to external stimuli with the somatic and autonomic manifestations that characterize "rage," or that such responses were extremely altered and fragmentary.

Key Words: lateral mesencephalic tegmentum • ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei • electrolytic lesions • loss of "rage"

Submitted on March 1, 1965

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