Stimulation in the Telencephalon 245 



the brain. Of particular interest for the present discussion are the 

 observations made by Feldberg and Sherwood (1954) on non- 

 anaesthetized cats. Various agents, injected into a lateral ventricle, 

 were found to cause secretion of saliva combined with symptoms 

 such as panting, retching, vomiting, licking and swallowing. 



Very little is known as to the type of peripheral, secretory fibres 

 that can be activated from the diencephalon. In alimentary reflexes 

 parasympathetic fibres are very likely involved. In emotional re- 

 actions the sympathetic system is generally assumed to discharge, 

 as described by Cannon for the "emergency reaction". When try- 

 ing to attribute some function to the sympathetic secretory fibres 

 of the salivary glands, which apparently take no part in digestive 

 reflexes, it is tempting to assume that these fibres are excited in the 

 emergency reaction. On the other hand, the reduction of salivary 

 secretion as an expression of less aggressive emotions must imply 

 a central inhibition, possibly from the hypothalamus, exerted on 

 the parasympathetic nuclei in the lower brain stem. 



Stimulation in the telencephalon. During the nineteenth century 

 numerous investigators observed a flow of parotid and submaxil- 

 lary saliva when an area above and in front of the Sylvian fissure 

 was excited in dogs (Bochefontaine, 1876; Bechterew and Mis- 

 lawski, 1888, 1889; Eckhard, 1889; Ziehen, 1899). The secretion 

 resembled that evoked by stimulation of the parasympathetic 

 secretory nerves and could be abolished by section of these fibres. 

 These observations have been confirmed and extended by more 

 recent investigators using stimulation methods which allow a more 

 detailed localization of the response. In general the secretory 

 responses obtained seem to be part of feeding reactions, elicited 

 from areas representing taste, tactile perception in the oral region, 

 smell, and from areas where responses of the muscles of the face, 

 the mouth and the throat can be produced. Walker and Green 

 (1938) frequently observed a profuse salivation when stimulating 

 the motor face area in primates. Crouch and Thompson (1939) 

 studied various autonomic effects of stimulation of the cerebral 

 cortex. Such effects, among them a flow of saliva, could be ob- 

 tained in cats and dogs at the junction of the frontal and anterior 

 sigmoid gyri, and in monkeys from the superior frontal gyrus and 

 the portions of the precentral gyrus adjoining it. Several other 

 investigators have, likewise, observed salivation when stimulating 

 this part, or the orbital gyri, of the frontal lobe in cats, dogs and 



