CONDITIONED REFLEXES ELICITED BY ELECTRICAL STIMULATION OF THE BRAIN IN MACAQUES

Abstract
Electrical stimulation of the brain was used as a conditional stimulus (CS) to evoke conditioned reflexes (CRs) of lever-pressing in Macaca-irus and M. nemestrina. Threshold current for elicitation of CRs showed no consistent differences among 38 neocortical and 31 subcortical loci and was about 1/2 that required for cats. With stimulation of the pre-central gyrus or elsewhere CRs can be evoked at stimulus intensities producing no overtly detectable movement. If one type of Cr is established to stimulation of the frontal cortex and another to stimulation of area striata, stimulation elsewhere in area striata, even contralaterally, immediately evokes the Cr appropriate to stimulation of the original striate location. Stimulation in other cortical areas, subsequently shown to be effective as CS, elicits no CRs. Macaques can discriminate differences in location of stimuli applied through electrodes < 1.0 - 3.0 mm apart in area striata.

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