Dissociating Reward from Response in Electrical Self-Stimulation in the Rat

It is shown that animals with chronically implanted electrodes will repeatedly operate a pedal to stimulate certain areas of their own brains, and that if the stimulating current is stopped, extinction follows almost immediately, although ‘one-trial’ relearning occurs when the current is again applied.

Abstract

IT has been shown that animals with chronically implanted electrodes will repeatedly operate a pedal to stimulate certain areas of their own brains. The responding differs in several ways from that of orthodox conditioning procedures: it is highly resistant to satiation, fatigue and distraction, and it continues unaffected when known physiological needs are fully satiated. If the stimulating current is stopped, extinction follows almost immediately, although ‘one-trial’ relearning occurs when the current is again applied. To explain these features it has been suggested that the electrical shock to the brain serves merely to ‘energize’ a compulsive and automatic repetition of the general pattern of activity present before receipt of tho shock, and that electrical shock to the brain is not ‘rewarding’ in the usual sense1–3.