Pain mechanisms: A new theory

"Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" was originally published in 1953, five years after the male volume. The material presented in this book was derived from personal interviews with nearly 6,000 women; from studies in sexual Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, and Endocrinology. The book presents data on the incidence and frequency with which women participate in various types of sexual activity. The authors show how such factors as age, decade of birth, and religious adherence are reflected in patterns of sexual behavior. Some measure of the social significance of the various types of sexual behavior is provided. The authors make comparisons of female and male sexual activities, and investigate the factors which account for the similarities and differences between female and male patterns of behavior.

Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

Contemporary findings reveal that the multiple modes of autonomic control do not lie along a single continuum extending from parasympathetic to sympathetic dominance but rather distribute within a 2-dimensional space. The physiological origins and empirical documentation for the multiple modes of autonomic control are considered. Then a formal 2-dimensional conception of autonomic space is proposed, and a quantitative model for its translation into a functional output surface is derived. It is shown that this model (a) accounts for much of the error variance that has traditionally plagued psychophysiological studies, (b) subsumes psychophysiological principles such as the law of initial values, (c) gives rise to formal laws of autonomic constraint, and (d) has fundamental implications for the direction and interpretation of a wide array of psychophysiological studies.

Autonomic determinism: the modes of autonomic control, the doctrine of autonomic space, and the laws of autonomic constraint.

Microvascular fluid exchange (flow J(v)) underlies plasma/interstitial fluid (ISF) balance and oedematous swelling. The traditional form of Starling's principle has to be modified in light of insights into the role of ISF pressures and the recognition of the glycocalyx as the semipermeable layer of endothelium. Sum-of-forces evidence and direct observations show that microvascular absorption is transient in most tissues; slight filtration prevails in the steady state, even in venules. This is due in part to the inverse relation between filtration rate and ISF plasma protein concentration; ISF colloid osmotic pressure (COP) rises as J(v) falls. In some specialized regions (e.g. kidney, intestinal mucosa), fluid absorption is sustained by local epithelial secretions, which flush interstitial plasma proteins into the lymphatic system. The low rate of filtration and lymph formation in most tissues can be explained by standing plasma protein gradients within the intercellular cleft of continuous capillaries (glycocalyx model) and around fenestrations. Narrow breaks in the junctional strands of the cleft create high local outward fluid velocities, which cause a disequilibrium between the subglycocalyx space COP and ISF COP. Recent experiments confirm that the effect of ISF COP on J(v) is much less than predicted by the conventional Starling principle, in agreement with modern models. Using a two-pore system model, we also explore how relatively small increases in large pore numbers dramatically increase J(v) during acute inflammation.

Microvascular fluid exchange and the revised Starling principle.

Diversity in behavioral responses to sensory stimuli has been attributed to variations in preparatory set. Variability in oculomotor responses toward identical visual stimuli has been well documented, but the neuronal processes underlying this variability are poorly understood. Here, we report evidence for set-related activity for saccadic eye movements in single neurons in the frontal eye field (FEF) in monkeys trained on a task in which they either had to look toward a visual stimulus (pro-saccade) or away from the stimulus (anti-saccade) depending on a previous instruction. A portion of FEF neurons were identified as neurons projecting directly to the superior colliculus (SC) with antidromic activation techniques. Saccade-related neurons in the FEF had lower prestimulus and stimulus-related activity on anti-saccade trials compared with pro-saccade trials. The level of prestimulus activity correlated with saccadic reaction times, express saccade occurrence, and errors in the anti-saccade task. In addition, saccade-related activity in the FEF was higher for pro-saccades than for anti-saccades. These results demonstrate that the direct descending pathway from the FEF to the SC carries preparatory set-related activity for pro-saccades and anti-saccades. The results also provide insights into the neuronal basis of variations in saccadic reaction times and in the control of the prepotent response to glance to a flashed stimulus.

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Lutie C. Leavell

Papers

A textbook of physiology

Kimber-Gray-Stackpole's Anatomy and physiology

Workbook and laboratory manual in anatomy and physiology

Anatomy and physiology : workbook and laboratory manual