Abstract
Electrical stimulation of septum and hippocampus was used as a discriminative stimulus for bar-pressing behavior in the rat. Stimulation of septum was easier to establish as a discriminative cue than was stimulation of hippocampus. A differential conditioned response could be established between the stimulations of septum and hippocampus and this differential response could be reversed by appropriately reversing the reinforcing contingencies associated with the stimulations. The results suggest that electrical stimulation of septum and hippocampus can be used to control behavior in a manner similar to that exerted by exteroceptive stimuli. Thus, the excitatory or inhibitory behavioral effects of brain stimulation may be more related to the reinforcing contingencies present during stimulation than to some intrinsic function of the structures stimulated.
Published Version
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