Conditioned acceleration and free-operant wheel-turn avoidance following septal lesions in rats

Abstract

Free-operant wheel-turn avoidance performance of rats with septal lesions and controls was studied in detail. Septal damage decreased the overall response and shock rates and the vigor of the “burst” pattern of responding. Both groups of rats were then given a series of Pavlovian conditioning trials in a separate apparatus. During these sessions, a 5-sec tone was followed by an unavoidable shock on half of the trials and by a 5-sec light stimulus on the remaining trials. Subsequently these stimuli were presented while the animals responded on the free-operant wheel-turn avoidance schedule. The magnitude of the response-rate acceleration produced by the tone in both groups was unaffected by the lesion. The light did not develop rate-inhibiting properties in either group of animals. These results provide no evidence that septal damage attenuates Pavlovian fear conditioning. © 1975, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.