The effects of nucleus raphe magnus lesions on an ascending thermal pathway in the rat

1. In the thalamus and hypothalamus of rats, anaesthetized with Urethane, single unit recordings have been made from cells which respond to small innocuous changes in scrotal skin temperature applied with a water-perfused brass thermode. 2. Once a scrotal temperature-sensitive neurone had been isolated the brain stem was electrolytically lesioned through implanted tungsten electrodes to determine whether the input from the scrotal skin temperature sensors ascends through the brain stem lemniscal pathways or the mid-line raphe nuclei. All recordings sites and lesions were identified histologically. 3. Thirty-six neurones have been studied of which half were located in the ventrobasal thalamus, six were located in the anterior thalamic nuclei and the remainder were in the medial hypothalamus. 4. The nucleus raphe magnus was lesioned on eighteen separate occasions; in each case the temperature-responsive activity of the thalamic or hypothalamic neurone was abolished. 5. Extensive brain-stem lesions which spared only the mid-line nucleus raphe magnus had no discernible effect on the responses of the thalamic or hypothalamic neurones to scrotal skin temperature. 6. The ascending pathway from the thermal sensors of the rat scrotal skin must pass through, or relay in, the nucleus raphe magnus.