Limbic hypertension induced by stress and septal stimulation. Stress-locked-in hypertension.

For this study, it was postulated that hypertension of emotional origin is generated within the limbic system. To validate this thesis, septal induced blood pressure elevations were combined with a stressful experience in adult rats (spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar Kyoto rats). Stress consisted of intermittent confinement in a plexiglass tube. The results revealed that hypertension induced by electric stimulation of the septum during the stressful state could subsequently be elicited by the stressful state alone, without electric stimulation of the septum. It was postulated that the cortically modulated stress circuit converged with the electrically activated limbic pressor circuit at the level of the septum. This convergence resulted in the formation of one cortico-limbic circuitry which could be activated by stress alone. This underlying mechanism may be considered as a model of neural sensitization in the production of stress-induced limbic hypertension.