Mitsuko Hamamura

Vasopressin secretion: suppression after light and tone stimuli previously paired with footshocks in rats

SummaryIn an attempt to find whether vasopressin (VP) secretion is suppressed by learned emotional stress, we have given rats under a hypertonic condition simultaneously applied light and tone that had been paired previously with footshocks and have quantified immunoreactive VP (ir-VP) in the plasma. In a training session light (60 watt) and tone (2 kz) of 3-s duration which were paired with electric footshocks (50 Hz, 1-s duration) were given to rats 11 times at an interval of 30 s. Various lengths of time after the training, the rats were tested with light and tone, which were unpaired with footshocks and repeatedly applied every 15 s for 3 min in the box used for training. Hypertonic NaCl (0.5 M, 2 ml/ 100 g b. w.) was injected s. c. 30 min before testing to increase the basal level of plasma VP. After testing, plasma ir-VP was significantly less in the experimental group than in the 0-mA control group of rats that were trained without FS. The values for the experimental group were also significantly less than those of untested control rats that had been trained with FS but were not tested. Plasma osmolality and blood haemoglobin concentration were not significantly different between control and experimental groups. Plasma immunoreactive adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ir-ACTH) level was higher and motor activity as expressed by cumulative time period of body movement during testing was lower in the experimental group than in either of the control groups. The difference in plasma ir-VP between experimental and control groups was statistically significant two days but not seven days after training, whereas ACTH and motor activity in experimental groups were still significantly different from those in control groups seven days after training. The suppressive VP and augmentative ACTH responses to testing disappeared in the rats that had received light and tone repeatedly during the intervening period between training and testing. These data support the hypothesis that emotional stimuli suppress VP secretion.

Amygdalar inputs to ADH-secreting supraoptic neurones in rats

SummaryEffects of amygdala stimulation on the discharge activity of antidromically identified supraoptic neurosecretory neurones were studied in male rats anaesthetized with urethane. Stimulation of the medial and the basal amygdala produced excitation or inhibition of discharge activity both in phasically firing (“phasic”) and in continuously firing (”continuous”) neurones. More “phasic” neurones were excited than were inhibited after medial amygdala stimulation. On the other hand, fewer “continuous” neurones were excited by stimulation of the either amygdala area than were inhibited. This difference of responsiveness between “phasic” and “continuous” neurones is statistically significant. Synaptic inputs to supraoptic neurosecretory neurones after amygdala stimulation were also observed in rats with a lesion of the stria terminalis. Supraoptic nucleus stimulation activated antidromically 14 of the 336 amygdala neurones tested. Since “phasic” neurones have been identified as ADH-secreting neurones, it is concluded that ADH-secreting neurones in the rat supraoptic nucleus receive predominantly excitatory synaptic inputs from the medial amygdala and these amygdalar synaptic inputs are mediated by pathways which are at least in part monosynaptic and are not included in the stria terminalis.

Synergistic interactions between footshocks and non-osmotic hypovolemia on vasopressin secretion in rats*

The effects of i.p. injected hypertonic NaCl and polyethylene glycol on the magnitude of increase in plasma vasopressin after footshocks were studied in male rats, to determine whether hypovolemia and body fluid osmolality interact with noxious stimuli on vasopressin secretion. Present data have demonstrated that non-osmotic hypovolemia but not body fluid hyperosmolarity interact significantly and synergistically with footshocks to potentiate vasopressin secretion.

Amygdala neurones: converging synaptic inputs produced by median eminence and medial preoptic area stimulations in rats

1. Amygdaloid afferent inputs from the median eminence and the medial preoptic area were studied electrophysiologically in urethane‐anaesthetized female rats.

Conditioned heart rate response: Testing under anaesthesia in rats

Classically conditioned heart rate response was studied in anaesthetized rats. Rats were conditioned with photic stimuli followed by electric tail shocks in a conscious state and tested under anaesthesia for conditioned heart rate change. Testing photic stimuli evoked a transient bradycardia in about one-third of testing trials. Magnitude of the bradycardia was significantly greater in conditioned rats than that in untrained or control rats trained with electric tail shocks followed by photic stimuli. The difference was found to be mainly due to the difference in amplitude of individual bradycardia response rather than that in frequency of occurrence of the response. Testing stimuli also evoked a slight and sustained tachycardia, but magnitude of the tachycardia in conditioned rats did not differ significantly from that in control or untrained rats. These results suggest that effects of classical conditioning on autonomic functions can be detected and studied under anaesthesia.

Differential Effects of Pre‐Weaning Stress on Adrenocorticotrophin and Prolactin Response to Novel Stimuli in Adult Rats

Emotional responsiveness is reduced in adult animals which have been exposed to stress during their first few weeks of life (1, 2). The stress of ‘handling’, daily removal of pups from their mother during the pre‐weaning period, also leads to a reduced corticosterone response to novel stimuli in adult life (3). In rats, exposure to novel stimuli results in the concomitant release of prolactin (PRL) and corticosterone (4–6). Here we show that, in male rats handled daily during the pre‐weaning period of life and tested in adult life for their hormonal responses to exposure to novel audio‐visual stimuli, the consequent secretion of adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH) is attenuated, but that of PRL is not. Thus, pre‐weaning handling results in permanent changes in a neural system specific to the control of ACTH secretion rather than affecting pathways common to neuroendocrine responses to emotional stimuli (7).