If the rat could not escape or fight, hypertension developed that remained chronic for 1 month.5 Follow-up of these rats showed that they remained hypertensive 3 months later (Kunz, unpublished). In another experiment, all rats received shocks from which they could not escape. Half of them were subjected to convulsions (induced electrically) after each shock session and did not develop hypertension. This lack of

hypertension was interpreted as being due to the impossibility- of conditioned learning because of the convulsions.6 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical The BIS (median septal area, hippocampus, lateral amygdala and ventromedial hypothalamus) could be at the origin of peripheral vasomotor disorders, while the central activating systems, or behavioral activating systems (BAS — medial forebrain bundle and paraventricular system) would prevent these effects.

A film was made based on Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Laborit’s theories: Mon Oncle d’Amérique (My American Uncle) by the French film maker Alain Resnais (1980). The film contains explanations by Laborit (Box I) ,7 as well as scenes of the rat experiments described above. The main theme of the movie was that achieving the right equilibrium between action and inhibition of action is paramount to mental and physical health. Fleeing is the solution to escape inhibition of action, when other behaviors are not possible. Discussion Responses to one’s environment, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical when Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical dysfunctional, become toxic, as Laborit studied in the 1950s in the field of anesthesia. He later studied the behavior of rats and concluded that inhibition of action induced pathogenic mechanisms. He observed that humans have ancestral http://www.selleckchem.com/products/Gefitinib.html instinctive

behavioral responses that are not adapted to the modern societal milieu. His aim was to explain biology and behavior at each of the different levels of functioning, from cell to society. The concept Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of inhibition of action remains operative in the search for new psychotropic medications, which could counterbalance unfavorable endogenous defense reactions. Box l Mon Oncle d’Amérique (My American Uncle) In this 1980 movie by Alain Resnais, Laborit explains several of his ideas. The film was a success, but some critics considered GSK-3 Laborit’s declarations to be too reductionist. A being exists only in order to be. That is, to maintain its structure, to remain alive. [...] Animals [...] have to act within a space. And to do this, they need a nervous system. This nervous system allows the animal to act within and on the environment, always with the same purpose – to ensure survival. [...] The purpose of a brain is not to think, but to act. [...] There is a first brain, which MacLean called reptilian, the brain of reptiles. It triggers behaviors associated with immediate survival, without which the animal could not survive [...] A second brain is added to the first and is usually called the brain of memory.