Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 21 April 1978:
Vol. 200. no. 4339, pp. 335 - 337
DOI: 10.1126/science.204998
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Science, Vol 200, Issue 4339, 335-337
Copyright © 1978 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Different brain areas mediate the analgesic and epileptic properties of enkephalin

H Frenk, BC McCarty, and JC Liebeskind

Single injections of 120 micrograms of methionine-enkephalin were made into various midbrain and forebrain structures in the rat. Analgesia was observed after injections into or near the ventral, caudal midbrain periaqueductal gray matter. Seizures and other pathological electroencephalogram (EEG) changes were seen with injections into or near the forebrain dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus. No animals with midbrain injection sites showed EEG changes, and none with forebrain injection sites were analgesic. These data, taken together with other lines of evidence, suggest that enkephalin-induced analgesia and enkephalin-induced seizures are mediated by opiate receptors that are located in different brain areas and that are pharmacologically different.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Near-Death Experience: A Review and Critique.
G. Groth-Marnat (1989)
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 29, 109-133
   Abstract »
Anticonvulsants specific for petit mal antagonize epileptogenic effect of leucine enkephalin.
O. Snead 3rd and L. Bearden (1980)
Science 210, 1031-1033
   Abstract »    PDF »
Classification of opioids on the basis of change in seizure threshold in rats.
A Cowan, E. Geller, and M. Adler (1979)
Science 206, 465-467
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)