Modes of action of local hypothalamic and skin thermal stimulation on salivary secretion in rats.

1. In urethane or ketamine-anaesthetized rats, salivary secretion was observed when local brain sites or trunk skin were stimulated thermally or electrically. 2. Salivary secretion was facilitated by bilateral local brain warming. Sensitive sites were restricted to the preoptic area and anterior hypothalamus, but in a region distinct from a previously reported sensitive site for producing saliva-spreading behaviour. 3. Unilateral warming of the preoptic area produced greater salivary secretion from the ipsilateral submandibular/sublingual salivary glands than from the contralateral glands. Electrical stimulation of the same sites elicited salivation only from the ipsilateral glands. 4. Trunk skin, not including the scrotum, was unilaterally cooled when spontaneous salivary secretion was observed in a hot environment. Salivary secretion from both sides was equally suppressed in response to the unilateral skin cooling. 5. We conclude that efferent signals from the anterior part of the hypothalamus project dominantly to the ipsilateral salivary gland for thermally induced salivary secretion. Thermal signals from the skin of either side of the trunk, on the other hand, appear to be integrated and to affect salivary secretion bilaterally.