Effects of Lesions in the Red Nuclei in Cats

The function of any part of the brain may be investigated experimentally by observing the effects of a stimulus applied to it directly, by noting the impairment of function caused by its destruction or by comparison of the reactions of an animal from which all the brain rostral to the part under investigation has been removed, with the reactions obtained when that portion has also been removed. The latter method has been used extensively in studying the rôle played by the red nucleus and subthalamus in the complex reaction patterns involved in standing and walking. The literature related to such investigations has been reviewed by Hinsey, Ranson and McNattin.1These authors found that a cat, from which all of the brain in front of a plane transecting the brain stem just rostral to the superior colliculi and mammillary bodies had been removed, could stand and walk. If such an