Effects of Preoptic Area Lesions on Muramyl Dipeptide-induced Sleep and Fever

Lesions of the preoptic area of rabbits caused hyperthermia, although they did not alter sleep-coupled changes in brain temperature, and reduced slow-wave sleep, rapid eye movement sleep, and amplitudes of electroencephalographic slow waves during slow wave sleep. The direction and magnitude of the muramyl dipeptide-induced responses were similar before and after the lesions, although the baseline values upon which the changes were superimposed had shifted.