Object-carrying by rats: an approach to the behavior produced by brain stimulation.
Rats were provided with opportunity to turn reinforcing hypothalamic stimulation on and off by traversing back and forth across a chamber. When provided with edible and inedible objects, all animals that self-stimulated carried them from the stimulation to the nonstimulation side. Neither food deprivation nor a history of stimulus-bound eating produced a preference for the edible objects. Equivalent stimulation provided without regard to the animals' location in the chamber did not elicit object-carrying. Results are interpreted in terms of the natural conditions which normally elicit this species-specific unit of behavior. Implications for understanding other behavior patterns elicited by hypothalamic stimulation are suggested.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012653:Self Stimulation