Cortical ablations in dogs with chronic neurogenic hypertension.

Abstract

MANY CLINICIANS believe that psychosomatic factors are important in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension in man. If so, it is likely that zones of the cerebral cortex constitute, at least in part, the neuroanatomic substrate responsible for the introduction of these factors into the physiologic processes concerned with regulation of the blood pressure. Indeed, Fulton 1 has stated that perhaps the most significant disclosure of the past few years in the field of scientific medicine has been the recognition of certain cortical regions as being integral parts of the autonomic nervous system because that revelation has afforded a sound physiologic background for psychosomatic aspects of medicine. There have been isolated reports of persistent falls in the blood pressure of hypertensive patients subsequent to various psychosurgical procedures.* Although this was not the usual result of such operations,† no deliberate effort was made to remove or undercut cortical regions demonstrated at