Lateral Hypothalamus: Food Current Intensity in Maintaining Self-Stimulation of Hunger

Abstract

Rats displaying stimulus-bound eating will press bars for currents slightly above eating threshold only when food is near the bar. At higher currents self-stimulation is maintained without food. Such currents may spread to activate consummatory feedback appropriate to the drive elicited; or, for more intensely stimulated drive mechanisms, wider ranges of sensory feedback may be reinforcing.