ABSTRACT
Department of the Biomedical Research Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and a superb teacher, who introduced us to the remarkable complexities of the nervous system and taught us how to study them. Eventually, we learned about the research projects going on in the laboratory of Flavio Mena, Carlos Beyer’s first student and colleague. Beyer and Mena published a paper in 1961 reporting the letdown of milk in response to stimulation of the cingulate gyrus in the female rabbit (Beyer et al. 1961). This was probably the first paper published in the field of neuroendocrinology from a laboratory in Mexico. They pursued a collaborative effort for almost a decade, studying the pathways involved in the neuroendocrine control of lactation, particularly the tel-and di-encephalic structures responsible for the secretion of anterior and posterior pituitary hormones and their effects on endocrine targets such as the mammary gland and the uterus (Beyer et al. 1962; Beyer and Mena 1965a,b,c, 1970; Mena and Beyer 1963, 1968a,b; Anguiano et al. 1970). Additionally, they explored the neuroendocrine regulation of sexual behavior, a line of research that emerged from their pioneer observations in female rabbits with lesions in the temporal lobe (Beyer et al. 1964; Yaschine et al. 1967).
