Word: reticular
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...thought to the brain's anatomy since their first year in medical school, the technical jargon was almost as forbidding as to a layman. Crux of the matter: drugs influence mental function mainly through their effects on two parts of the brain: 1) the primitive midbrain's reticular (little network) formation, and 2) the connections between the thalamus (inner chamber) and the outer cortex (bark), the most sophisticated and evolutional-ly the newest part of the brain. Dr. Himwich reported...
...Tranquilizers of the phenothiazine class (notably chlorpromazine and prochlorperazine) reduce the activity of the reticular alertness center and intensify the sleepiness pattern of the thalamocortical fibers...
...Rauwolfia drugs from Indian snakeroot (best known: reserpine) stimulate the reticular alertness center and have little effect on the sleep pattern, are therefore less sedative in action. ¶ Meprobamate, in moderate doses, usually has no effect on the alertness center and little on the sleep pattern; its tranquilizing action must work through other parts of the brain...