Effect of lesions of the septal-limbic area on the behavior of cats.

Abstract

Experimentally naive cats with lesions in the septal-limbic area that showed impairment on a passive-avoidance test were found to be deficient on the acquisition and 1st reversal of a successive discrimination problem. They were not impaired on the acquisition or reversal of a simultaneous-discrimination problem. These animals learned an active-avoidance problem in fewer trials than controls but did not require more shocks to extinguish the avoidance response during punishment-extinction. The lesion had no effect on one measure of food intake, general activity level or the rate of extinction of a food reinforced response. Results are discussed in terms of the hypothesis that septal-limbic structures dampen the increase in response strength which normally follows a reinforcement.