Response suppression in normal and septal rats

Abstract

After 11 days of lever press training on a variable interval 30 sec schedule, separate groups of septal and normal rats were exposed for 10 days to one of two response-suppression procedures: extinction or differential reinforcement of other behaviors. Both procedures were effective in suppressing responding, with the septal rats taking longer to reach the suppression asymptote than did the normals. All rats then received 5 days of non-contingent food presentation. Under these conditions responding recovered to a much greater degree in rats previously given extinction than in those given DRO. Further, septal rats given extinction showed more recovery than did normals given extinction.