Dissociating the determinants of self-stimulation

Abstract

Four experiments were conducted to elucidate the determinants of the initiation of and escape from electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus under several different reinforcement schedules. The first experiment of this series used correlational and factor analytic techniques to show that, under continuous reinforcement, the vigour of initiation is determined more by forcement than by positive reinforcement. Forcement is defined as all of the performance changes directly elicited and potentiated by the stimulation. Escape is determined by adaptation of positive reinforcement, not by negative reinforcement or aversion. Continuous reinforcement schedules are, therefore, not appropriate for studying either the positive or negative reinforcement produced by brain stimulation. The second experiment used fixed-interval reinforcement schedules to eliminate the effects of forcement on initiation and adaptation of positive reinforcement on escape. Parametric manipulations indicate that activity in the positive reinforcement and escape systems is a simple function of stimulation charge. The combination of parameters which make up a given charge is of relatively little importance. However, the positive reinforcement system becomes maximally activated at far lower charges than does the escape system. The third experiment used a T-maze technique to show that, after 5 sec, anterior hypothalamic stimulation becomes negatively reinforcing, but posterior hypothalamic stimulation does not. Since the escape from posterior hypothalamic stimulation on a fixed-interval schedule can be dissociated from both negative reinforcement and adaptation of positive reinforcement, it is suggested that such escape is reinforced by a positive process triggered by the offset of stimulation (OFF positive reinforcement). The fourth experiment showed that stimulation trains longer than 10 sec are significantly less positively reinforcing than much shorter trains. This reduction in positive reinforcement confirms the development of negative reinforcement in long trains of hypothalamic stimulation, even at posterior electrodes. Negative reinforcement appears to be as general a property of hypothalamic stimulation as is positive reinforcement. Thus, depending on the reinforcement schedule and electrode site, the initiation of lateral hypothalamic stimulation may be determined by ON positive reinforcement, OFF positive reinforcement and forcement. Escape may be determined by OFF positive reinforcement, adaptation of positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. The new procedures presented here allow the dissociation of these diverse determinants and the reliable quantification of the reinforcement produced by hypothalamic stimulation.