Abstract
The performance of rats with ventromedial hypothalamic (VMH) or septal lesions was compared with that of normal subjects on a discrete trial DRL task. Animals were pretrained at 85% of their ad-lib body weights and postoperatively tested at this level of deprivation and at greater and lesser deprivation levels. Septal rats emitted significantly more nonreinforced responses and had shorter response latencies than did control and VMH rats while tested at the different deprivation levels. VMH lesioned rats performed as well as controls. Septal performance was not affected by deprivation level. Both VMH and control subjects obtained the greatest number of reinforcements while tested at the greater deprivation level. In spite of the large number of similarities between VMH and septal rats, VMH rats, unlike septal rats, used internal cues as well as normal rats did to perform proficiently on this task.
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This research was supported in part by NIH Biomedical Research Support Grant RR07036.
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Flynn, F.W., Mitchell, J.C. Comparison of septal and ventromedial hypothalamic lesion effects on discrete trial DRL behavior. Psychobiology 8, 493–496 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326482
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326482