Behavioral measurements of the neural poststimulation excitability cycle in the lateral hypothalamic eating system of the rat

Philip H. Halboth, Edgar E. Coons

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Studied the effects of rate and pattern of central stimulation on the strength of electrically elicited eating behavior in 10 male Sprague-Dawley rats. 2 experiments showed that threshold and latency as measures of this strength yield similar results. Doubling the stimulation rate increased response strength, presumably because of temporal summation of the transmitter at synapses in the neural pathway mediating the behavior. However, varying temporal patterning of pulses, with rate held constant, did not affect response strength except at interpulse intervals so short that the 2nd pulse of a pair fell within the presumed refractory period of the 1st; then response strength decreased. The lack of differential temporal summation at different patternings of pulses was attributed to a long survival lifetime of the transmitter mediating hunger. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)429-433
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology
Volume83
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1973

Keywords

  • pattern of central stimulation, strength of electrically elicited eating behavior, rats
  • rate &

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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