Evening star., 1953-10-28
HuIIucinutions Studied
By Edqewood Scientist
'Anti-Futieue' Drugs
Involve Broin Chemistry
By Thomos R. Henry

By Thomas R. Henry
Hallucinations may be a matter Of
brain chemistry. So also may be the
apparent anti-fatigue effects of certain
drugs.
Both effects may we'll result from a
disbalancement between stimulating and
inhibiting nerve impulses in the brain,
according to a report of experiments
with animals just made to the Amer
ican Association for the Advancement
of Science by DR.. Amedeo S. Marrazzi
of the Army Chemical Center at Edge
wood, Md.
It is well recognized that some drugs
cause people to see things. A notable
example is peyote, drug derived from
certain cactus, which is used by some
Southwestern Indians as the basis of a
religious cult. 1t contains a nerve
affecting substance, meScaline. Ac-
cording to the thesis advanced by DR..
Marrazzi, this effect probably is due to
the shutting off of nerve impulses
which ordinarily would be present in
the visual cortex of the brain and
whose function is to keep visual stimuli
under control rather than let them run
VIII UlAOu6IA GA1C VI oAAA NCAAo'
About the same reasoning applies to
"pep-up" drugs. These do not actu-
ally stimulate. They inhibit the
higher centers responsible for feelings
of fatigue and probably intended to
protect the body against over-exertion.
Nerve Jumps"
DR.. Marrazzi bases his thesis on the
chemical transmission OF nerve I'M
pulses across "synapses," infinitesimally
minute divisions between nerve fibres.
An impulse travelling along nerve.
which could be likened to an electrical
impulse, must Jump" such synapse
across which there are no physical con-
nectionS.
A widely accepted explanation is that
the nerve ITSELF when stimulated,
secretes from it's end a chemical which
momentarily bridges the gap. This has
been best demonstrated in the auton-
omic nervous system which controls au-
tomato physiological activities such as
heart beat, rate of breathing, flushing.
sweating and blood-preSSure levels. In
jections of adrenaline, hormone Secreted
from the adrenal gland, raises the level
of all these activities. Numerous other
drugs do likewise. This might be due
to direct stimulation OF nerve impulses
across synapses. 1t might be due also,
to some extent to throwing out OF &C
ton normal inhibitory influences ex-
erted by the central nervous system on
the autonomic functions.
The same "humoral" mechanism for
nerve transmission across SynapSeS IN
the cerebral cortex, the top of the brain
in which is centered all consciousness,
is not so we'll accepted. DR.. Marrazzls
experiments with electrical stimulation
of nerve fibers in the corticeS OF cats,
chiefly in the visual center at the back
of the brain where the reactions es-
sential for seeing" take place, gives
strong indication, he says, that the
same mechanism Is at work.
Seeing Is Complex.
The apparently simple ability to
"see" anything is, from neurological
point of view, one of extremely great
complexity. Light reflections from the
object seen are picked up by receptor
organs in the retina of the eye and pass
over very involved nerve pathways to
the visual cortex before they finally
emerge as an image of the object at
which one is looking.
It is quite probable that their passage
must be stimulated in certain directions
and inhibited in others or extreme dis
tortion of form and color. amounting
to hallucination, would result.
But drugs can inhibit the synapse-
bridging secretion from the inhibit!ng
nerves, the cat brain experiments
indicate.
Says DR.. Marrazzi: Some very IN
triguing clinical implications present
themselves. Do undoubted de-fatiguing
agents, like amphetamine and ephed-
rine, exercise a mixed action, St1mu-
lating at some sites and inhibitlng at
others, or is the former release phe-
nomenon resulting from the latter?
Inhibition of higher controlling cortical
neurons readily could be conceived as
manifesting itself by increased activity
of the lower neurons, which would
otherwise be restrained.
Pertinent to these observations are
the mental phenomena that can be
produced by adrenaline compounds
rarely with adrenaline, often with am
phetamine and very conspicuously with
mescaline, which also produces hallu-
cinations that are most marked IN the
visual system. Mental phenomena such
as these Challucinations) might possibly
also be looked upon as being released
when synaptic inhibition interrupts
pathways through which the restrain
ing influence of higher neurons, is
expressed"