Electrical Stimulation of the Brain Stem of the Hooded Rat: Evoked Behaviour and Rewarding Effects

Abstract

<p>This thesis is concerned with the functional organization of motor patterns as indicated by electrical stimulation of the rat brain stem. The thesis also examines the relationship between the evoked behavior and the rewarding effects produced by stimulation of the same sites. The results showed that stimulation of the midbrain, diencephalon and striatum elicited a variety of behavior patterns including components of grooming and digging behavior as well as walking, running, exploratory behavior, escape and vocalization which have been demonstrated previously in other species. The majority of sites that yielded evoked behavior were neutral in self-stimulation tests in the sense that they supported neither self-stimulution nor escape behavior .</p>