The describability of the rats’ behaviour in categories of certain statistical procedures after applying the electrical stimulation to the nucleus accumbens

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the describability of animals’ behaviour in categories of certain statistical procedures after applying the electrical stimulation to the nucleus accumbens. Six rats were trained to run to a burette filled with glucose or water after 0, 10 and 20 of food deprivation. After an animal reached the burette, a train of cathodal rectangular pulses of 100 Hz frequency and 0.5 s was delivered alternatively to each nucleus accumbens frequency and duration of the current train were held unvaried during the experiment. Current intensity, time of food deprivation, and burette content were randomly changed during successive sessions of the experiment. The applied current intensities were 0, 500 and 700 μA. In the initial phase, rats that had been deprived, run to the burette filled with glucose until running speed stabilized. Each session consisted of 20 trials, which formed an executive activity pattern of responding for a particular animal. Obtained data were investigated by means of the regression analysis, autocorrelation function and ANOVA. The electrical stimulation of the nucleus accumbens exerted no influence on running speed, latency to run or fluid intake but crucially affected patterns of animals’ responding. This experiment supports the thesis, that the nucleus accumbens is responsible for a mode of the executive activity control and therefore final characteristics of responding. This means, that brain representation of activity resulting from deprivation creates an input for the nucleus accumbens, in which final characteristics of responding are established. This conclusion is discussed in the context of conditions of predictability of the time course of animals’ activity.