Behavioral Changes after Partial Damage of Limbic System : —Effects of Unilateral Lesion of Amygdala in Gats—

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the question whether or not unilateral lesion to the amygdala and its adjacent structures in cats produces significant change in sexual and fire-avoidance behavior. After the unilateral amygdalectomy, both male and female cats showed hyperactivity of sexual behavior, indicating successive estrus which was unobserved in normal cats during the regular mating seasons. Moreover, the amygdalectomized subjects did not show the fire-avoidance behavior. This disappearance of fire-avoidance behavior lasted over five weeks. It is considered that this result was due to psychic blindness, or visual agnosia, which Klüver and Bucy mentioned in monkeys after bilateral resection of the temporal lobes. The present finding implies that individual differences in sexual behavior appear to depend on the neural basis of the amygdala in adult cats, supporting an assumption that the amygdala is a controlling center of sexual and emotional behavior which is one of the principal role of the limbic system. © 1978, The Japan Neurosurgical Society. All rights reserved.