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P. K. ANOKHIN
Moscow (U.S.S.R.)
As soon as the physiological peculiarities of the reticular structure of the brain stem
were discovered, neurophysiologists were forced to examine a number of new prob-
lems of cortical-subcortical relationship (Moruzzi and Magoun 1949 ; Magoun 1950;
Jasper 1949).
The most important of these problems was how to qualify the new form of “arousal”
spreading through the centrencephalic system, the physiological properties of
which greatly differed from the arousal effect spreading through the classical lemniscal
system.
There were weighty reasons for setting these problems. Our established concepts
on the spreading of excitations through the central nervous system, formed before
the discovery of the physiological properties of the reticular structure, proved incon-
sistent. We supposed that excitations, generated in response to external or internal
stimuli, extend from this initial point, frequently according to a linear principle, over
an ever expanding territory. It seemed evident that the sources of energy required for
this spreading process were drawn directly from successing excitations in every
consecutive point of the central iiervous system.
This concept, according to which primary excitation is self-supplied with energy
along the whole line of its extension, has been proved to be inadequate.
The discovery of the physiological specificity of the reticular structure of the brain
stem has had a particularly important influence on our conception of the associative
activity of the cerebral cortex. According to this conception the presence in the cortex
of “two points of excitation” caused by an excitation of the lemniscal system, seemed
by itself to be quite sufficient to make the associative connection between them.
However, the simple fact that evoked potentials were obtained in the state of narcosis
(Derbyshire et al. 1936) was the first actual proof of the inadequacy of this conception,
which was founded on the idea of the existence of one lemniscal-thalamic system
of excitation. This deduction could have been made even a t that early stage, but
it was not then made.
The research conducted by Moruzzi and Magoun and the systematic research later
made by Jasper and other scientists showed that the cortical effect of external stimula-
tion is a more complicated process than neurophysiologists had considered it to be.
This was the origin of the first classification of ascending activations into “specific”
References p . 338-339
326 P. K . ANOKHIN
and “nonspecific” (Magoun 1950, 1958). The most characteristic symptoms of non-
specific activations were: (a) lack of a specific single sensory modality, (b) activation
of the EEG (desynchronization) and (c) generalized spreading over all the cortex.
This first classification was based on the assumption that the “nonspecific” nature
of activation is a universal and homogeneous property of every ascending activation of
the cortex. In short, it was assumed that nonspecific activation, produced by the
ascending excitations from the reticular structure, is the same for a11 kinds of cortical
activation manifested by the desynchronization of its electrical activity. And all the
types of generalized desynchronization of cortical activity were naturally admitted
to be also equal, not differing from each other in any of their physiological qualities.
The systematic research carried out in our laboratory showed that this concept of
a single type of activating influence on the cortex was likewise inadequate and required
considerable broadening.
The very first experiments made by Agafonov, who applied pain activation under
urethane narcosis, discovered certain new aspects of the ascending activating influen-
ces on the cortex. He obtained, by nociceptive stimulation of the hind limb of a
rabbit several unexpected results (Agafonov 1956). Although the animal was actually
in a narcotic sleep, its electric activity showed a sharp activation (desynchronization)
of cortical electrical activity (Fig. 1).
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Fig. 1
The desynchronizing effect of the nociceptive stimulus under urethane. (a) Sleep state under urethane;
(b) the nociceptive stimulation (hot water) of a hind limb; (c) absence of desynchronizationfollowing
chlorpromazine (aminazine) injection. Abbr. : SM, sensorimotor cortex; 0, occipital cortex.
It was evident to us that this was the first indication that urethane, as a narcotic,
possesses special properties. This proved to be the chance observation which made us
doubt, as early as 1953, the physiological truth of the conception that ascending
activation has a certain universality and a single form.
I shall try to reproduce the logical thread of the argument which later led to a
series of specially directed experiments.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER OF ASCENDING ACTIVATIONS 321
In the first place we were forced to admit, on the strength of numerous experiments
that had been by that time published, that the state of wakefulness is, in itself, an
activated state of the cortex, which gets this activation from the rostra1 part of the
reticular structure of the neuraxis (Magoun 1950).
At the same time, every new stimulus which exerts its influence in the wakeful state
immediately causes supplementary activation in the form of a sharply defined gener-
alized desynchronization of electrical activity in the wakeful state (orienting-investiga-
tory reaction). But, in an animal or man who is awake, pain stimulation also causes
the sharp desynchronization of cortical electrical activity, because of the ascending
activation which reaches it (Fig. 2).
1 Wakefullness We have, therefore, three types of ascending activating influence on the cortex, all
2 Pain
3 Orientative- of them manifested by the generalized desynchronization of cortical electrical activity,
investigatory and all differing only in the degree of activation.
reaction If all these three types of activation had the same physiological quality and the
same nervous substratum, we ought to infer that urethane must, as a narcotic, also
block all these types of activation. But, as we have seen, it depresses the activation of
wakefulness and the activation of tentative-experimental reaction, but leaves the
activation by painful stimulation intact.
So that we had, in this case, a diyerent chemical specificity of the nervous substratum
of three different activating influences on the cerebral cortex.
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Fig. 2a
Rcfercncer p . 338-339
328 P. K. ANOKHIN
TC'
Mth
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Bell
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Fig. 2b
(a) The absence of desynchronization to a strong auditory stimulus under urethane. Abbr. : SML,
left sensorimotor cortex; OL, left occipital cortex; SMR, right sensorimotor cortex; OR, right
occipital cortex; CMR, right centrum medianum. (b) The orienting-investigatory response under
aminazine (chlorpromazine). A marked desynchronization of electrical activity of the cerebral cortex
is seen within 1 sec after application of the conditioned alimentary stimulus (bell). Abbr.: SM, sensori-
motor cortex; TC, temporal cortex; OC, occipital cortex; Mth, intralaminar thalamic nuclei;
LTh, lateral thalamic nuclei; RF, reticular formation of the brain stem, ECG, electrocardiogram.
What was the actual substance of this selective action of urethane on the different
activating mechanisms of the subcortical apparatus?
The most likely supposition seemed to be that this selective sensitivity to urethane Reac-orient.
was related to the special chemical nature of the diflerent biological complexes of the Wakefullness
subcortical structures: the hypothalamus and the reticular structure.
On the strength of this conclusion we turned our attention to comparative studies
of ascending activations of the cortex with definitely different biological origins. Such
activities, differing as to their biological qualities, are well known to research workers.
They are: the conditioned reflexes to food and defence against pain (Fig. 3).
These experiments have been reported at several international conferences (Anokhin
1959, 1960) and in a special report delivered at the Pavlov session devoted to higher
nervous activity, which was arranged jointly by the Academy of Medical Sciences
of the U.S.S.R. and the New York Academy of Sciences (Anokhin 1961).
The numerous experiments of my colleagues, A. Shumilina, V. GavliEek, I. Zatchinay-
eva, Y. Makarov and others, have shown that chlorpromazine (aminazine) in defi-
nite doses has a selective blocking effect only on the defensive states and defensive condi-
tioned reflexes of the rabbit, leaving the conditioned food reflexes practically unchanged.
Chlorpromazine correspondingly blocks defensive ascending activation and leaves
SPECIFIC CHARACTER OF ASCENDING ACTIVATIONS 329
food activation free to manifest itself (Shumilina 1956; GavliEek 1958, 1959; Zatchi-
nayeva 1960; Makarov 1960).
So that here we are faced, in principle, with the same phenomenon of selective
influence as that observed when urethane is used, but in a demonstratively reciprocal
aspect : chlorpromazine blocks selectively the mechanisms of ascending painful
activation, leaving the mechanisms of wakefulness and food activation untouched.
s
cs
us
T
Fig. 3
The selective effect of aminazine on the conditioned defensive reflex. (a) The animal’s response to
the conditioned alimentary stimulus in the room in which the stimulus has always been reinforced
by food. (b) The same animal’s response to the conditioned defensive stimulus in the room in
which it has always been reinforced by electrical stimulation. (c) The same animal’s response to the
same conditioned defensive stimulus 30 min after chlorpromazine injection. Abbr. : Sen. Mot. C.r.,
right sensorimotor cortex: Sen. Mot C.I., left sensorimotor cortex; Oc. Cr., right occipital cortex;
Oc. C.1., left occipital cortex; Tem. C.r., right temporal cortex; Tem. C.1., left temporal cortex.
Signals, from above downwards: S, salivation in drops; CS, conditioned stimulus; US, unconditioned
stimulus; T, time in seconds.
Af.I...I.
a b
rerg.
saliv.
n.ischiad. -
- 1 sac
Fig. 4
The blocking effect of aminazine (chlorpromazine) on the painful sciatic stimulation of the decere-
brate animal. ( a ) The change in the respiratory curve before the injection of aminazine; (b) the
absence of any change in response to the stimulus of the same strength after the injection of
aminazine. Abbr. : n. ischiad. sciatic stimulation; n. ling., lingual stimulation; resp., respiration:
saliv., salivation.
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Fig. 5
The illustration of the inhibitory effect of the injection of arninazine (chlorpromazine) on reciprocal
interaction on the spinal cord level. (a)Reciprocal relationships before arninazine (chlorpromazine)
injection. (6) Reciprocal relationships following after the injection of aminazine. Inhibition of both
phases of reciprocal relationships is shown. (c) The recovery of reciprocal relationships after the
subbulbar transection. The experiment shows that aminazine has disinhibited the inhibitory centres
of the medulla by blocking the adrenergic substratum of the brain stem. The specific sensitivity of
the brain stem formations to aminazine is thus emphasized. Abbr.: A, indicates aminazine (chlor-
promazine) injection; S, subbulbar transection.
While the temporal, parietal and occipital areas of the cortex show the usual slow
activity, the frontal areas of the cortex, on the contrary, show a clearly different
activity of the “arousal” or desynchronized rapid type (Fig. 6).
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Fig. 6
The selective activating effect of hunger on the electrical activity of the cortical frontal lobes. (a)
Electrical activity of the cerebral cortex of the cat fed before the experiment. Slow activity in the
frontal lobes is displayed. (b) Cortical electrical activity of the cat deprived of food for two days
before the experiments.
Referencas 0. 338-339
332 P. K. ANOKHlN
The fact that this special activity of the frontal area is connected with the state of
food deprivation and is not blocked by a narcotic substance, i.e. is manifested in the
somnolent state, turns our attention to this activity which requires a thorough experi-
mental analysis.
We argue as follows: if this activity is the result of excitation of the food centre of
the hypothalamus by “hungry blood” (Anand and Brobeck 1960; Anderson 1960),
then the change of this “hungry blood” into “satiated blood” must lead to the
appearance of the usual slow activity in the frontal areas.
“Satiation” of a starved cat under urethane narcosis was accomplished by two
methods: the introduction of milk through the mouthand oesophagus into the stom-
ach, with particularly marked irrigation of the mouth cavity, and the intravenous
injection of a glucose solution. These methods were intended to imitate as nearly
as possible the natural process of satiation which is, as we have shown, composed of
several factors (Anokhin 1962).
Our expectations proved to be correct. Immediately after the process of “satiation”,
the activated state of the frontal areas of the cortex changed into the slow electrical
activity characteristic of the somnolent state. Although this slow activity was not
entirely similar to the electrical activity of the other areas of the cortex, it differed
radically from the activity corresponding to the condition of food deprivation (Fig. 7).
We must stress that the whole process of “satiation”, i.e. the process of replacing
the electrical activity of the starved cat by the electrical activity of the “satiated” cat,
developed under narcosis, on the background of a deeply somnolent state.
These experiments leave no doubt that the independence of ascending activations
of hunger in the frontal areas of the cortex from the somnolent state and narcotic
blockade has a profound biological meaning. It is probably this physiological pecu-
liarity of the activation described above that wakes the hungry animal from sleep and
sends it in search of food. We evidently see it also in the behaviour of the infant who
wakes only to receive food.
Now we have interesting additional facts. As is well known from our previous
experiments, urethane anaesthesia does not block the painful activation of the cortex.
On the contrary, chlorpromazine blocks that activation even under urethane anaes-
SPECIFIC CHARACTER OF ASCENDING ACTIVATIONS 333
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(a) Background electrical activity of the cerebral cortex of the hungry animal. (b) Recovery of slow
electrical activity of the frontal lobes following anodic polarization of the hypothalamic regions.
Abbr. (Figs. 6, 7, 8): FR, right frontal lobe; FL, left frontal lobe; OR, right occipital cortex; OL,
left occipital cortex; SmR, right sensorimotor cortex; SmL, left sensorimotor cortex; PR, right
parietal cortex; PL, left parietal cortex; HpMR, right medial hypothalamus; HpML, left medial
hypothalamus.
Our recent experiments have shown that chlorpromazine blocks selectively painful
activation only, but does not at all affect hunger activation of the frontal lobes under
urethane anaesthesia (Fig. 9).
This new evidence shows that in this particular instance we also have several
special qualities of ascending activations and their selective action on the cortical
cells.
It is reasonable to assume that all the ascending influences mentioned above
spreading from different subcortical energetic points of different functional systems
converge to the same cortical neuron, but only through different and specific synaptic
References P. 338-339
334 B. K . ANOKHIN
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Fig. 9
Arguments for assuming a different chemical nature of the subcortical substrate which provides
mobilization of either defensive or alimentary cortical connections. (a) The electroencephalogram in
a hungry state. Activation of the cortical frontal lobes. (b) Theactivation effect of the nociceptive
stimulus on all the cortical areas before aminazine (chlorpromazine) injection. (c) The blocking and
activating effects of aminazine on the nociceptive stimulation (0.3 V). (d) Activation of the frontal
lobes under hungry state is not blocked by aminazine. Abbr.: FR, right frontal lobe; FL, left fron-
tal lobe; SmR, right sensorimotor cortex; SmL, left sensorimotor cortex; PR, right parietal
cortex; PL, left parietal cortex; OR, right occipital cortex; OL, left occipital cortex.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER OF ASCENDING ACTIVATIONS 335
Uhr and Miller 1960). We are trying to work out an explanation of the physiological
mechanism of their action on various psychic states. It is hardly likely, for instance,
that the basic point of this explanation must be the effect of these substances on the
elementaryprocesses ofexcitation and inhibition in the nervous system(Marrazzi 1961).
There is no doubt that any drugs introduced into the bloodstream will eventually,
influence the processes of excitation and inhibition. But this alone does not explain
why these substances should influence both these processes developing, for example,
in a given psychic state, nor why that psychic state is eliminated selectively as a whole
in all its numerous components and systems of excitation and inhibition.
As I consider the factual evidence relative to this problem, I become more and
more convinced that all psychopharmacological effects can be explained in a much
more acceptable way on the basis of the architectural principle, i.e. by the properties
of a widely branched functional system with components which are heterogeneous
from a chemical and physiological point of view.
From this point of view we may consider that the state of anxiety or fear is caused
by the existence of a selectively organized system of nervous connections between the
cortex and the subcortex. This system is built in such a way that a great many associa-
tive connections occur, mainly in the cortex. On the other hand, energetic facilitation,
which insures the selective contact between many elements of the cortex, that is to
say, practically the maintenance of this interconnected branching system in the inte-
grated and dominant state, is undoubtedly caused by the corresponding subcortical
structures (“Emotions, the source of power of the cortical cells”, according to
Pavlov).
It is therefore quite natural that every dominating system of relationship disappears
as soon as its chemically most vulnerable link is blocked. It is vulnerable because of
its maximal energetic potencies and consequently its intense metabolic processes.
Figuratively speaking, by means of the selective blockade of the most energetic and
vulnerable links of the functional system, the tranquillizer “pulls out” the given
functional system from numerous integrative systems of the whole brain, leaving
other functional systems in a more or less normal state.
In several special cases these last non-blocked functional systems may appear in
very accentuated expression, for instance, in the appearance of greedy eating after the
injection of chlorpromazine and after the disappearance of permanent anxiety
(“release phenomenon”) (GavliEek 1958).
The psychopharmacological effect is not the only phenomenon in the activity of
the whole brain which can be easily explained on the strength of our conceptions of
the specific character of the ascending activating influences on the cortex. The differ-
entiation of the conditioned reflexes of a different biological nature are undoubtedly
formed and defined on the same principles.
Suffice it to say, that the complete elimination of the defence system and its cortical
superstructures and the simultaneous maintenance of clearly manifested food reac-
tions after the injection of chlorpromazine is a sufficient example of this law (Gav-
liEek 1958; Anokhin 1961).
There is one point in the conception mentioned above which cannot yet be precisely
SPECiFIC CHARACTER OF ASCENDING ACTIVATIONS 337
point of view only, but are quite different in their metabolic basis. That is probably
because the first negative potential is blocked by GABA, while the second one
escapes from its chemical action.
This problem will, in any event, be studied experimentally with the greatest care.
Should it appear that individual synapses of the cortex have a chemical variety which
lmin 15min
Fig. 10
An illustration of a different metabolic basis for evoked potentials having the same negative sign.
(a) The evoked potential before the administration of GABA. Apredominant negative component of
the primary evoked potential is seen. (b) Depression of the negative component of the primary
potential and the appearance of a new negative component with longer latency (f) after the admini-
stration of GABA. (c) The relationship of the primary and secondary negative potentials 1 min after
the administration of GABA. A remarkable augmentation of the secondary negative potential with
depression of the primary negative potential is visible. ( d ) After 15 min, the secondary negative
potential has increased.
REFERENCES
AGAFONOV, V. G. Inhibitory action of chlorpromazine on effects of painful stimulation. Zh. Nevropat.
Psikhiat., 1956, 56: 94103.
ANAND, B. K. and BROBECK, J. R. Yule i.Bioi. Med., 1951,24: 123. Cited by E. STELLAR, Drive and
Motivation. In: Handbook of Physiology, Vol. III, Sect. I (Neurophysiology), 1960: 1501-1 527.
ANDERSON, B. and MCCANN, S. M. Acta physiol. scand., 1955, 35: 191, 333. Cited by E. STELLAR,
Drive and Motivation. In: Handbook of Physiology, Vol. I l l , Sect. Z (Neurophysiology), 1960:
1501-1527.
ANOKHIN, P. K. Electroencephalographic analysis of cortico-subcortical relations in positive and
negative conditioned reactions. Pavlovian Conference on Higher Nervous Activity. Ann.
N. Y. Acad. Sci., 1961,92: 899-938.
ANOKHIN, P. K. Zh. vyssh. nerv. Deyut. (J. Higher Nervous Activity), 1962: in press.
ATA-MURADOVA, F. On development of the activating effect of the reticular formation in the postnatal
period. In : Evolution of the Physiological Functions. U.S.S.R. Academy of Medical Sciences,
Moscow, 1960: 122-129.
BULLOCK, T. Reviews of modern physics. Biophysical Sciences, 1959,31: 259.
DERBYSHIRE, A. D., RAMPEL, B., FORBES, A. and LAMBERT, E. F. The effect of anesthetics on action
potential in cerebral cortex of the cat. Amer. J. Physiol., 1936,116: 577-592.
GAVLICEK, V. Electroencephalographic characteristics of conditioned defensive dominant state.
J. Physiol. U.S.S.R., 1958, 44: 305-316.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER OF ASCENDING ACTIVATIONS 339