[Role of the dorso-medical thalamus in the development of the adrenocortical response to acute stress in the pigeon]

Stress application elicited successive attenuating peaks of plasma corticosterone level occurring 14, 35, 60 and 90 min. later. Late peaks were suppressed after bilateral electrolytic lesions were placed in the nuclei dorsomedialis anterior thalami, resulting in a single peak (the first one) of corticosteronemia after stress application. It is suggested that reverberating adrenocortical response to stress depends upon interrelationships between the adrenocorticotropic hypothalamus and the anterior medio-dorsal thalamus.