ABSTRACT
The most common method of separating autonomic nervous system and striate muscular response components of behavioral acts has been the use of pharmacological blockade of the skeletal response system, usually through the use of d-tubocurarine. Stimulating electrodes were implanted under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia on the cervical vagus, the preganglionic fibers entering the right stellate ganglion, and the motor nerve innervating the sartorius muscle in 16 cats. After complete muscular blockade was obtained, as evidenced by the complete block of evoked elec-tromyogram, the infusion was terminated and the neuromuscular junction was allowed to recover. Since overcurarization can potentiate all of the side effects of the drugs, it is essential to carefully titrate the infusion to just produce neuromuscular blockade. Another property that curarization compounds have is that of releasing histamine. All of the agents used for neuromuscular blocking also have some effect on ganglionic transmission directly tested the possibility that cardiac innervations were modified by curare.
