Regions in the brainstem and frontal cortex where electrical stimulation elicits parotid and submandibular saliva secretion in sheep

Acute experiments were conducted in sheep anaesthetized with sodium pentobarbital to identify regions in the brain where electrical stimulation would elicit secretion by the parotid and submandibular salivary glands. This was a prerequisite for single unit studies in the future. In the brainstem, parotid and submandibular secretions were evoked on average between 7 and 16 mm rostral to obex and from 1 to 11 mm lateral to midline, with the parotid gland being active on the caudal and the submandibular on the rostral sides of this region. Overlap of the two sites was common. The combined region was either between cranial nerves VII and IX or adjacent to either one of them. Stimulating the caudal edge of the parotid sites evoked relatively high parotid secretion rates compared with other areas whereas secretions were uniform throughout the submandibular sites. The combined sites were from 2 to 5 mm deep, the dorsal edge being 1 mm below the floor of the fourth ventricle near midline and 6 mm below it at the lateral extremes. From a dorsal perspective, their orientation was essentially in the lateral plane except that the submandibular site angled slightly rostrally from midline. Profuse parotid secretion was also consistently evoked by stimulating the frontal cortex 15-20 mm from midline and 0-15 mm under the apex. Weak submandibular responses were observed in about half of the sheep. There were no effects on either gland of stimulating the olfactory bulbs. This is the first report of the regions in the brain which increase parotid and submandibular saliva secretion in ruminants. The three-dimensional representation of both sites in the brainstem of individual animals is more precise than the composite representations published to date for other species. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.