Severe hemorrhage lowers arterial pressure by suppressing sympathetic activity. The central mechanism that initially triggers the fall in arterial pressure evoked by hemorrhage is not well understood, although opioid neurons are thought to play a role. This study tested the hypothesis that hemorrhagic hypotension is mediated by delta opioid receptors in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vl...

Neuronal activity has been shown to be attenuated in cardiorespiratory and locomotor centers of the brain in response to a single bout of exercise in trained (TR) vs. untrained (UN) animals, but the mechanisms remain obscure. Based on this finding, dendritic branching patterns of seven brain areas associated with cardiorespiratory and locomotor activity were examined in TR and UN animals. Twent...

Electroacupuncture (EA) causes prolonged suppression of reflex elevations in blood pressure for 1-2 h in anesthetized preparations. A long-loop pathway involving the arcuate nucleus (ARC), ventrolateral periaqueductal gray, and rostral ventrolateral medulla (rVLM) is involved in sympathoinhibitory cardiovascular EA effects. However, the mechanisms and locations of the prolonged EA inhibition ar...

The spinal and peripheral innervation of the clitoris and vagina are fairly well understood. However, little is known regarding supraspinal control of these pelvic structures. The multisynaptic tracer pseudorabies virus (PRV) was used to map the brain neurons that innervate the clitoris and vagina. To delineate forebrain input on PRV-labeled cells, the anterograde tracer biotinylated dextran am...