Brain reticular system

Shute CCD, Lewis PR The ascending cholinergic reticular system neocortical, olfactory and subcortical projections. Brain 90 521-540, 1967... 

Two other systems of importance in the brain are the reticular system and the limbic system. The... 

Moruzzi G. The physiologic properties of the brain-stem reticular system. In Adrian ED, Bremmer F, Jasper HH, eds. Brain Mechanisms and Consciousness. Oxford Blackwell, 1954 21 18. 

Using the techniques of electrical stimulation and surgical alterations of the brain that led to Moruzzi and Magoun s concept of activation of a reticular system in the brain, the French neurophysiologist Michel Jouvet, working in Lyons from the mid-1950s onward, established once and for all that brain activation did occur and that it occurred spontaneously in sleep. 

Ethanol is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant that initially and selectively depresses some of the most active portions of the brain (reticular activity system and cortex). The mechanism of action most likely involves interference with ion transport at the axonal cell membrane rather than at the synapse, similar to the action of other anesthetic agents. Ethanol can bind directly to the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor in the CNS and cause... 

Lewis, P. R. and Shute, C. C. D. (1967) The cholinergic limbic system projections to hippocampal formation, medial cortex, nuclei of the ascending cholinergic reticular system and the subfornical organ and supra-optic crest. Brain, 90,521-540. 

Promethazine causes sedation by reducing stimuli to the brain stem reticular system. Like other antihistamines, promethazine has significant anticholinergic effects it should be used with caution in patients with narrow-angle glaucoma, peptic ulcer, or pyloroduodenal obstruction or urinary bladder obstruction from prostatic hypertrophy or narrowing of the bladder neck. It also should be used with caution in patients with CVD or hypertension because of the risk of palpitations with acute or chronic respiratory dysfunction (especially children) because promazine may depress the cough reflex. 

Cortex mid-brain—limbic system reticular formation— vasomotor centres—>-reflex vessel tone pituitary- ACTH, etc. Nutrition ... 

The multiplicity of synapses in the mid-brain and hypothalamus makes the reticular system particularly susceptible to chemical influences and a large number of drugs are capable of modifying its activity, thus producing changes in the level of consciousness, alertness and behavioural responsiveness. 

The possibility cannot be excluded that the actions of noradrenaline, as revealed by iontophoretic studies, reflect its physiological function in some areas but not in others. The large amounts of noradrenaline in the hypothalamus and mid-brain suggest that the observed stimulation of reticular neurones by noradrenaline points to its having an excitatory function in the brain stem. If it has a transmitter function elsewhere, it may well be inhibitory in nature. It is clear that even the evidence that noradrenaline is a transmitter in the reticular system is not nearly so convincing as that which supports the argument that acetylcholine is a mediator of transmission at central synapses. 

Although it has been clinically available for a number of years, the United States Food and Drug Administration in early 1968 allowed labeling changes for diazepam (XXIV) to allow for new indications of use for the relief of muscle spasm and adjunctive use in convulsive disorders . It was reported that in cats the brain stem reticular system is the major locus of central nervous system depressant action of this centrally acting skeletal muscle relaxant. 

Aghajanian, G.K. and Vandermaelen, C.P. Specific systems of the reticular core Serotonin. In Mountcastle, V.B. Bloom, F.E. and Geiger, S.R., eds. Handbook of Physiology, Volume IV. Intrinsic Regulatory Systems of the Brain. Bethesda, MD American Physiological Society, 1986. pp. 237-256. 

The extrapyramidal motor system controls muscle movement through a system of pathways and nerve tracts that connect the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, reticular formation, and spinal neurons. Patients with PD lose dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra, which is located in the midbrain within the brain stem. The substantia... 

Figure 8.1 The pain pathway. The pain signal is transmitted to several regions of the brain, including the thalamus reticular formation hypothalamus limbic system and somatosensory cortex. Each region carries out a specific aspect of the response to pain.

Nerve signals from the thalamus and the reticular formation are transmitted to the limbic system as well as the hypothalamus. Together, these regions of the brain are responsible for behavioral and emotional responses to pain. The limbic system, in particular, may be involved with the mood-altering and attention-narrowing effect of pain. 

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