Lateral hypothalamus: food current intensity in maintaining self-stimulation of hunger.
Rats displaying stimulus-bound eating will press bars for currents slightly above eating threshold only when food is near the bar. At higher currents self-stimulation is maintained without food. Such currents may spread to activate consummatory feedback appropriate to the drive elicited; or, for more intensely stimulated drive mechanisms, wider ranges of sensory feedback may be reinforcing.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005246:Feedback; D005502:Food; D006815:Hunger; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012653:Self Stimulation