Grooming in the rat as an aftereffect of lateral hypothalamic stimulation.

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Abstract
Grooming occurred as an aftereffect of electrical stimulation at hypothalamic sites that elicited locomotion, drinking, or eating as stimulus-bound behaviors. Removal of food or water, which caused rats to switch from one stimulus-bound behavior to another, produced little or no change in the grooming aftereffect. Stimulation with pulse pairs showed that the absolute refractory period for the neurons responsible for the occurrence of grooming is approximately 1 ms. This value is longer than those reported for drinking, eating and locomotion. With some electrodes, low levels of stimulation elicited grooming directly, during the stimulation; at higher levels grooming occurred only as an aftereffect. Grooming is activated through neurons separate from those that produce drinking, eating or locomotion. Its occurrence as an aftereffect may be due to an interaction between short-lasting inhibitory and longer lasting excitatory effects of the stimulation.