Corticohypothalamic relationships during the development and realization of the conditioned reflex

Abstract

The influence of motivational, emotiogenically positive and emotiogenically negative structures of the hypothalamus on the development and realization of conditioned reflexes was investigated in the experiments on dogs, cats, and rats. It was shown that the motivational structures primarily increase excitability of cortical neurons during the development of the conditioned connection, while the emotiogenically negative and emotiogenically positive structures increase the efficiency of synapses. A high degree of correlatedness of the averaged evoked responses to the conditional stimulus in the hypothalamus and new cortex is characteristic for the consolidated conditioned reflex. Direct stimulation of the motivational-alimentary zones of the hypothalamus reproduce food-procuring conditioned reflexes in dogs, while stimulations of the emotiogenically negative zones reproduce defense conditioned reflexes. Stimulation of the emotiogenically positive zones does not reproduce either; however, an intensification of the activity of neurons of the hypothalamus was recorded in rats during the successful accomplishment of the conditioned reaction of avoidance of an aversive stimulus. In cats which are capable of restraining a conditioned motoric reaction for the sake of obtaining a preferred food, the "motivational", long-latency functional connections between neurons of the lateral hypothalamus and the prefrontal cortex predominate. Short-latency "informational" connections predominate in the "impulsive" cats. © 1994 Plenum Publishing Corporation.