Reciprocal inhibition therapy and classical conditioning in the treatment of insomnia

Abstract

Experiments were conducted on three chronic unanesthetized, undrugged cats. Electrical stimulation of the basal forebrain area (BFA) resulted in presleep behavior (i.e., the cats would sit or lie down, and EEG spindles would arise). After several sessions (conducted twice a week), two of these cats began to exhibit presleep behavior almost immediately after entering the experimental compartment, even before the application of BFA stimulation. The third cat often ate some food (which was always present in the compartment) before showing presleep behavior. When stimulation was withheld during an extinction procedure, the cats still exhibited presleep behavior in the absence of stimulation during several sessions. We conclude that repeated BFA stimulation led to conditioning of the stimulation effects, that is, the presleep behavior that was evoked by the environmental situation alone, without BFA stimulation or any other intermittent stimulus.