We report the case of a young man who accidentally received a prolonged electric discharge from electrical wires and released the electric source with the help of an inappropriate shock from his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), after misinterpretation of the electrical signal by the device as a ventricular tachycardia. This case illustrates the "electrical noise" phenomenon, and un...

BACKGROUND Pain induced by electrical stimuli has been found in previous research to be reduced by brief, weak electrical pulses, termed prepulses, presented 40 to 60ms prior to the painful electrical stimulus. METHODS The present experiment investigated the generality of this effect by presenting weak acoustic stimuli simultaneously with, or 80 or 1000ms prior to, painful electric shocks. In...

In a recent, discussion of approach-avoidance conflict theory, Miller (1959) assumed that the strength or excitatory potential of the approach response should vary with factors which have been found to affect performance in nonconflict situations, namely: (1) the number of reinforced trials, (2) the strength of drive motivating the approach response, (3) the delay of reward, and (4) the amount ...

Each of eight rats was located in the experimental chamber mounted with two levers. Lever-pressing to either of the two was maintained by a schedule of food. After that, a punishment schedule of electric shocks was added. Neither the reinforcement nor the punishment schedule was programmed on the other lever, i.e. the non-reinforced alternative. The effect of reinforcement, and the joint effect...

By recording neuromagnetic events during aversive classical conditioning, we examined the extinction of a previously described conditioned response. Averaging over non-reinforced exposures to the conditioned stimulus revealed magnetic activity in the secondary somatosensory and insular cortices, appearing between 110 and 140 ms after the omitted unconditioned electric shock. We suggest this act...

Populations of Drosophila were trained by alternately exposing them to two odorants, one coupled with electric shock. On testing, the flies avoided the shock-associated odor. Pseudoconditioning, excitatory states, odor preference, sensitization, habituation, and subjective bias have been eliminated as explanations. The selective avoidance can be extinguished by retraining. All flies in the popu...

This study pertains to assessing the effects of electric shocks that are used in the treatment of severe self-injurious behavior. With pain sensation and startle response as the dependent variables and focusing versus distraction of recipient's attention to the electric shocks as the independent variable, these stimuli were administered to 60 paid volunteers. Using ANOVA, no significant effect ...

On six days rats were exposed to each of two contexts. They received an electric shock in one context and nothing in the other. Rats were tested later in each environment without shock. The rats froze and defecated more often in the shock-paired environment; they also exhibited a significantly larger elevation in rectal temperature in that environment. The rats discriminated between each contex...

VINEGAR, A. AND R. E. DAVIS. Branchial ventilation rates of cataleptic goldfish (Carassius auratus) and the effects of light and electric shock. PHYSIOL. BEHAV. 8 (3) 417-420, 1972.--Inverted, cataleptic goldfish showed an increase in ventilation rate over a 20 min period. The time-dependent increase in respiratory movement was initially suppressed when a 10 see light or a 0.1 see shock was pre...

Ss received series of electric shocks to the forearm in which the temporal schedule and the sequence of shock intensities were associated with varying levels of randomness or uncertainty. The Ss were permitted an instrumental response which produced, in advance, information concerning 1 or both of these aspects of the shocks. Such information functioned as a strong positive reinforcement for mo...