Abstract
Albino rats, previously trained on a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement showed an important increase of response rate over 10 daily retraining sessions following lesions in the medial part of the thalamus. A more transitory disruption in the temporal regulation of behavior was also observed. In rats previously trained on a fixed-ratio schedule, the same lesion produced a slight increase in the mean number of reinforcements taken up in the 10 daily retraining sessions. Control experiments demonstrated that these modifications of behavior cannot be attributed to a sensory motor alteration, to the surgical shock, to the interruption of conditioning nor to changes in hunger state. Control lesions of the ventral postero-lateral nucleus of the thalamus are without effect in a fixed interval schedule. It is suggested that the medio thalamic structures participate to an inhibitory system regulating learned behavior, system closely related with the timing mechanisms involved in temporally defined schedules.
Published Version
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