The amount of compensatory sweating depends on the patient, the damage that the white rami communicans incurs, and the amount of cell body reorganization in the spinal cord after surgery.
Other potential complications include inadequate resection of the ganglia, gustatory sweating, pneumothorax, cardiac dysfunction, post-operative pain, and finally Horner’s syndrome secondary to resection of the stellate ganglion.
www.ubcmj.com/pdf/ubcmj_2_1_2010_24-29.pdf

After severing the cervical sympathetic trunk, the cells of the cervical sympathetic ganglion undergo transneuronic degeneration
After severing the sympathetic trunk, the cells of its origin undergo complete disintegration within a year.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1439-0442.1967.tb00255.x/abstract

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Mental Phenomena: brain - body - environment

But maybe a better way of talking about it would be to say that mental phenomena arise through the interaction between brain and body and the environment and -- this is what Karl Popper says -- that whole interactive thing produces an emergent, which we call mind and spirit, and so on.

Karl Pribram

Changing the pattern of afferent information generated by the cardiovascular system can significantly influence perception and emotional experience

messages from the cardiovascular system have effect on the mental processing

when the communication of afferent signals from the heart
to the brain is compromised, there is less awareness
of feeling sensations in the body.

In summary, evidence now clearly demon-
strates that afferent signals from the heart signifi -
cantly influence cortical activity. Specifically, we now
know that afferent messages from the cardiovascular
system are not only relayed to the brain stem to ex-
ert homeostatic effects on cardiovascular regulation,
but also have separate effects on aspects of higher
perceptual activity and mental processing.
Rollin McCraty, Ph.D.

It has been shown that the processing of visual informaiton is significantly changed as heart rate and carotid pressure changed

For example, the effects of cardiac afferent
input on sensory perception have been studied by
looking at how these signals affect processing in the
visual system. It has been shown that the process-
ing of visual information is significantly changed
as heart rate and carotid pressure change. These
findings provide confirmation of the Laceys’ earlier
behavioral evidence that cardiovascular activity in-
fluences sensory intake.

Rollin McCraty, Ph.D.

Sympathectomy separates the viscera from the CNS

Elmer Green, Menninger Clinic
physician and pioneer of the biofeedback approach
to treatment of disease, offered an astute summation
of this highly debated topic: “Every change in the
physiological state is accompanied by an appropri-
ate change in the mental emotional state, conscious
or unconscious, and conversely, every change in the
mental emotional state, conscious or unconscious,
is accompanied by an appropriate change in the
physiological state.”


autonomic responses vary both quantitatively and qualitatively
with the degree of emotional intensity.

Individual differences in patterns of autonomic
discharge during emotional states have also been
identified and associated with personality charac-
teristics. For instance, individuals who have been
characterized as “impulsive” personality types dis-
play rhythmic bouts of palmar sweat secretion and
increases in heart rate even at rest, while in others,
little change occurs in these physiological parameters
under similar circumstances.

Afferent feedback from bodily organs has been
shown to affect overall brain activity and to exert a
measurable influence on cognitive, perceptual, and
emotional processes.
Rollin McCraty, Ph.D.
Heart–Brain Neurodynamics
The Making of Emotions