Disturbance of rumination in the goat after ablation of the orbito-frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex

Summary

• 1.

  The rumination pattern has been studied in three goats before and after ablation of the orbito-frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex.

• 2.

  The animals were able to ruminate within a few hours of the cortical ablation and devoted about the same amount of time in ruminating in a day as normal animals.

• 3.

  The rumination cycle length shows an obvious irregularity following lobectomy. This irregularity of rumination cycle length is synchronised with an irregularity of reticuloruminal contractions.

• 4.

  Following lobectomy a variation in jaw movements was apparent during remastication; this disfunction may have been due to the very fluid nature of the regurgitatied food mass which was noticeable at this time.

• 5.

  The part played by the cerebrum in controlling the many and varied reflexes associated with rumination is discussed.