Motivational properties of hypothalamic aggression in cats.

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Abstract
Hypothalmic stimulation caused 9 normally nonaggressive cats to make predatory attacks on rats. During stimulation, all learned a [UPSILON] maze to obtain a rat that they could attack. When stimulation was omitted, performance of the learned habit deteriorated and there were no attacks. When the stimulation was turned on during eating of cat food, the cats switched to attack on a nearby rat, indicating that the attack was not due to hunger. It was concluded that the performance of the attack was rewarding and that the central readiness for attack elicited by the stimulation possessed motivational and cue properties salient in the evocation of the learned responses leading to prey.

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