A simple histological technique for localizing electrode tracks and lesions within the brain.

Histological procedures are necessary in brain stimulation or lesion work to determine the neural area which has been stimulated or damaged. Preparation of brain tissue often involves embedding and staining techniques that require specialized training, and the expense of a technician and a large assortment of special apparatus and supplies. In addition, the results of such techniques are unavailable for at least several days. A photographic method, which requires little special skill and a minimal amount of apparatus, is described here. Results can be available within minutes after the subject is sacrificed. This method has been shown to be adequate for the gross determination of lesion boundaries and electrode or cannula tip loci in brains of rats, cats, and squirrel monkeys.     

Contralateral and heteromodal interaction effects in somatosensation: Do they exist?

In this paper we concern ourselves with the problem of whether or not conditioning stimuli of other modalities or stimuli applied to a distant locus of the body interact with a sensitive test of somesthetic temporal acuity we have called the gap test. The results of the experiment indicate that visual stimuli do not exert an observable influence on this temporal judgment, but that auditory stimuli and contralateral stimulation in the same modality do show a significant but relatively small effect. This is compared and contrasted with the very large and persistent effect reported when the conditioning stimulus is applied to the same electrodes as the gap test. By comparing our results with experiments of similar design carried out on lower animals by other investigators, some insights into the neural localization of the reported effects is obtained.