Behavioral self warming and cooling of spinal canal by rats.
Rats with a chronic thermode implanted in their spinal canal could bar-press to warm or cool their spinal cord. With a "cold" lever, they cooled their spinal canal less in a cold environment than in a warm environment. With a "warm" lever they behaved in the same way, i.e., warmed their spinal canal more in a warm than in a cold environment. In a two-lever situation they pressed the cold and the warm levers alternatively in warm environment, but did not press either in cold environment. These results suggest that cold and warm spinal cord provided the rats with rewards of a different nature.
D000818:Animals; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D012201:Reward; D013115:Spinal Canal; D013823:Thermoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*