From: ur-valhalla!ix.netcom.com!ladynada (LadyNada)
Subject: 'Fight or flight' brain control located (fwd)
Message-ID: <199511022315.PAA14488@ix4.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Thu, 02 Nov 95 18:17:42 EST
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Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 11:50:10 PDT
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - For decades, scientists have known
that something, somewhere in the brain triggered the
''fight-or-flight'' emergency response in humans and animals.
Now they know where it is.
Neurobiologist Arthur Loewy, his assistant Arthur Jansen and
other researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in
St. Louis used genetic engineering to alter two viruses so they
could track the antibodies through rats' brains. Their findings
appear Friday in the journal Science.
The viral trace led them precisely to the nerve cells that
can simultaneously set off the vigorous heart pumping and the
burst of adrenaline that compose the fight-or-flight response to
emergency.
``It's a biochemical confirmation of a common sense
observation,'' Loewy said in a telephone interview this week.
Most were C1 cells in the hypothalamus, at the base of the
brain, and in a part of the brain stem called the rostral
ventricular medulla. The brain stem, where the spinal cord and
brain meet, controls critical life functions like breathing
and the heart.
The finding has eventual clinical potential as scientists
gain further insight into the circuits and pathways of the
brain. For instance, they may be able to someday develop drugs
that break the cycle linking anger to heart disease.
``We're learning the basic brain mechanism and the chemical
nature of those systems,'' Loewy said in a telephone interview,
adding that he now wants to study higher regions of the brain,
which exert control over the C1 ells.
``This gives you a complete roadmap, where to start looking
at the specific things, the interface between psychological, and
autonomic (cardiovascular) responses.''
Scientists had a general idea of this map before, but now
can be very specific. ``Before it was like knowing what village
the response was in -- now, I can tell you exactly what house,''
he said.
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