Human Hypothalamic Homologues to Autonomic Control Centres Identified in Rat and Monkey

下丘脑是所有哺乳动物共有的大脑结构。对大鼠的实验表明，下丘脑基本上参与心血管控制、液体和电解质平衡、食物摄取和能量代谢、体温调节和免疫反应以及防御-攻击反应和生殖。在人体中进行功能研究几乎是不可能的，因此，将从与大鼠中确定的中心的结构相似性推断出参与这些功能的人类下丘脑区域。本项目将获得大鼠和猴子的结构化学数据，其唯一目的是将这些数据与人类的类似数据进行比较。处理心血管和其他自主功能的下丘脑部分预计在大鼠和人类中是相似的，本研究将在人类中识别大鼠中已识别的所有主要区域。大鼠大脑中的一个区域与人类大脑中的一个区域之间的对应关系将主要基于化学相似性来建立。相应的区域往往具有类似的神经递质，酶和其他神经活性物质。一些待研究的化学物质已知在自主控制中起作用。因此，化学绘图研究有两个作用：（a）可以确定一个地区的化学特征（特征），从而能够在人体内进行识别;（B）揭示该地区所使用的化学品，以便在理论和实践上加以考虑。目前的研究将使来自大鼠实验工作的假设在人类身上得到更有意义的检验。它将有助于人类大脑的病理和成像研究。

The hypothalamus is a brain structure common to all mammals. Experiments on the rat have shown the hypothalamus to be fundamentally involved in cardiovascular control, fluid and electrolyte balance, food ingestion and energy metabolism, thermoregulatory and immune responses, and defensive-aggressive responses and reproduction. It is virtually impossible to perform functional studies in the human and, therefore, the human hypothalamic regions involved in these functions will be inferred from their structural similarity to the centres identified in the rat. The present project will obtain structural-chemical data on the rat and monkey for the sole purpose of comparing these data with similar data on the human. The parts of the hypothalamus that deal with cardiovascular and other autonomic functions are expected to be similar in the rat and human and the present study will identify in the human all major regions that have been identified in the rat. The correspondence between an area in the rat brain and one in the human brain will be established primarily on the basis of chemical similarity. Corresponding areas tend to feature similar neurotransmitters, enzymes and other neuroactive substances. Some of the chemicals to be investigated are known to have a role in autonomic control. The chemical mapping study then serves two roles: (a) It permits the identification of the chemical profile (signature) of an area and consequently enables its identification in the human, and (b) it reveals the chemicals the area utilizes for possible theoretical and practical considerations. The present study will allow hypotheses derived from experimental work on the rat to be more meaningfully tested on humans. It will assist pathological and imaging investigations of the human brain.