Decerebration

Decerebration is the elimination of cerebral brain function in an animal by removing the cerebrum, cutting across the brain stem, or severing certain arteries in the brain stem.

Decerebration describes the ligation along the neural axis in distinct parts of the brain in experimental animals. Generally lower decerebration (the cut is made above the upper border of the pons), middle decerebration (cut is made through the red nucleus) and upper decerebration (cut is made so the cortical area is removed). As a result the animal abolishes certain reflexes which are integrated in different parts of the brain. Furthermore the reflexes which are functional will be hyperreactive (and therefore very accentuated) due to the removal of inhibiting higher brain centers (e.g. the facilitatory area of the reticular formation will not receive regulating input from cerebellum, basal ganglia and the cortex).