The effect of post-training hypothalamic self-stimulation on sensory preconditioning in rats.

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Abstract
Water-deprived rats experienced a preconditioning session (consisting of paired or unpaired presentations of a tone and a light) followed by either no self-stimulation, immediate self-stimulation or self-stimulation delayed by 2 or 4 h. On the next 2 days, the rats experienced the conditioning phase in which the light was paired with a footshock. At 24 h after the last conditioning trials, the transfer of the conditioned emotional response from the light to the tone was evaluated using a suppression of drinking procedure. Self-stimulation facilitated retention of the association between the tone and the light when it occurred within 2 h after preconditioning training, but not when it occurred 4 h after training. Immediate posttraining self-stimulation had no effect on rats that experienced unpaired tone and light presentations during preconditioning training. The self-stimulation treatment strengthened the association between the tone and the light retroactively and noncontigently; direct activation of the neural substrate of reinforcement can improve memory for associations formed between 2 neutral stimuli.

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