Abstract
Heart rate can be changed by cutaneous stimulation. In anesthetized cats with the central nervous system intact, a reflex increase in heart rate was elicited after natural stimuli such as pinching (noxious mechanical stimulation), rubbing (non-noxious mechanical stimulation), warming and cooling (thermal stimuli) were applied to the skin of the neck, chest, abdomen or perineum. It was shown that this cutaneo-cardiac acceleration reflex was produced mainly by a reflex increase in the discharges of the cardiac sympathetic efferent nerves and partially by a reflex decrease in the discharges of the cardiac vagal efferent nerves. On the other hand, in spinal cats, only stimulation of the chest and abdominal skin produced a reflex increase in heart rate. A possible explanation of this difference between central nervous system intact and spinal cats is that a spinal, segmentally organized component of the cutaneo-cardiac acceleration reflex is dominated by a supraspinal, diffusely distributed component in central nervous system intact cats.
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