Neural Correlates of Motivated Behavior in Fish

Abstract

The studies on which the bulk of the results discussed in this paper are based were carried out in the Netherlands Central Institute for Brain Research. The history of this Institute is marked by research on comparative neuroanatomy in which the fish brain played an important role. This is examplified by the thesis and subsequent studies of its first director, C.U. Ariens Kappers (1904) dealing with the centers and tracts of the teleostean and selachian brain, and by R. Nieuwenhuys’ thesis (1960) on the actinopterygian telencephalon. The latter’s studies especially were of great importance for our neuroethological studies on the behavioral functions of the forebrain in teleost fish (e.g., Nieuwenhuys, 1959). The term “etho-anatomy” was introduced by Segaar (1962) in connection with effects of frontal brain lesions on innate behavior in the three-spined stickleback.