Tolerance to rewarding brain electrical stimulation: Differential effects of contingent and non-contingent activation of parabrachial complex and lateral hypothalamus.

This study examined the effects of contingent and non-contingent stimulation in a CPP task. In the former modality, the animals can voluntarily select areas of the maze and thereby determine whether or not they receive stimulation. In the non-contingent procedure, the animals passively receive the administration of the rewarding electrical current while confined in the preferred place. Tolerance to the rewarding stimulation was observed in the non-contingent procedure, in which the external lateral parabrachial subnucleus (LPBe) was stimulated in a behaviorally passive task, but not in the contingent procedure. In contrast, no tolerance was observed in the group receiving rewarding stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus after either contingent or non-contingent brain activation. These findings are discussed in terms of the rewarding effects induced after contingent or non-contingent administration of electrical or chemical rewarding agents.
PMID: 28844853 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Behavioural Brain Research - August 24, 2017 Category: Neurology Authors: Hurtado MM, Puerto A Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research