The effect of lateral hypothalamic lesions on gastric motility in dogs.

Since the.discovery of Anand and Brobeck (1951), the hypothalamus is considered a s the main "food center". From this time many authors (Miller 1957, Wyrwicka 1957, Morgane 1961, Teitelbaum and Epstein 1962, Balinska 1963, and others) studied different aspects of the effects of hypothalamic lesions and hypothalamic stimulation on food intake mechanisms and conditioned reflexes in cats, rats, rabbits and goats. Among other alimentary functions the lateral hypothalamus exerts its influence also on the alimentary tract. The effect of electrical stimulation of the hypothalamus on gastric motility was described by several authors (Beattie and Sheehan 1934, Sheehan 1940, Eliasson 1952, 1954, Glavcheva 1964a, Fennegan and Puiggari 1966, and others). We have much less informations concerning the effect of the hypothalamic lesions on the functions of the alimentary tract. I t seems that Mayer and Sudsaneh (1959) were the only ones who performed this kind of chronic experiment on rats. They did not find, however, any effect of the lesion on gastric functions. From the recent work of Roikowska (1969) and Rozkowska and Fonberg (1970) it is known that lateral hypothalamic lesions impair various alimentary functions in dogs. After the operation these animals were not only aphagic or hypophagic but also their instrumental conditioned reflexes were deeply impaired. In addition, in all the animals persistent vomiting was observed (Fonberg 1968, Fonberg and Rozkowska 1968). In rats and cats this symptom was not previously described by other