Analysis of the relationships between self-stimulation sniffing and brain-stimulation sniffing.
Determination of current thresholds for self-stimulation and electrically elicited sniffing from electrodes placed into lateral hypothalamic and ventral tegmental areas of rats revealed a tight correlative relationship between the two phenomena (r values of approx 0.9 at both sites). Thresholds for sniffing were never higher than those for self-stimulation, while approximately half the animals had higher self-stimulation than sniffing thresholds, suggesting that electrically elicited sniffing may better index the underlying psychobiological process that mediates self-stimulation. That both phenomena reflect the same basic process was suggested by the fact that 48 h of food deprivation consistently reduced the thresholds for both self-stimulation and sniffing, while 24 h of food deprivation had only marginal effects on both. The implications for understanding the nature of self-stimulation processes is discussed.
Rossi
J
J
Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Ohio 43403.
Panksepp
J
J
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D007026:Hypothalamic Area, Lateral / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008474:Medial Forebrain Bundle / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012653:Self Stimulation / Q000502:physiology*; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013681:Tegmentum Mesencephali / Q000502:physiology