[Different behavioral acts induced naturally or by electric stimulation of the brain]

Abstract

A comparison was made between the reinforcing properties of a purposive attack provoked by stimulation of the hypothalamus and those of natural behaviour based on a certain motivation and exteroceptive stimuli. A model of an experiment with two cats has been evolved which made it possible to study simultaneously their behaviour in response to one and the same indifferent stimulus, reinforced in one cat by stimulation of the hypothalamus, while for the other, the stimulus acted as a signal of the attack on the part of the stimulated cat. It was shown that conditioned reflexes were not elaborated on the basis of reinforcement of the indifferent stimulus with behavioral effects of the purposive attack, produced by stimulation of the hypothalamus. It is assumed that conditioned reproduction of the purposive attack is impossible due to the absence of natural motivation; hence behavioral acts imposed by stimulation of the brain are not fixed in the memory.