The role of the ventromedial nuclei of the hypothalamus (VMN) in food behavior was studied in adult male rats, allocated in 3 groups: control, sham and lesioned. Electrolytic lesions were induced stereotaxically (1.2 mA, 15 sec). Results revealed a significant decrease (p<O.05) in body weight (BW) and food intake (FI) in the order of lesioned <sham <control during the fIrst week. However, ...

Bilateral electrolytic pallidal lesion ameliorated the deleterious effects of bilateral quinolinic acid (QA) lesion to the striatum on post-surgery weight, activity level, and performance in a water maze task, and reduced the extent of striatal damage. Given that the neurodegenerative and behavioral effects of QA striatal lesion are thought to mimic those seen in Huntington's disease, these res...

Effects of mid-dorsal caudate nucleus on sensorimotor changes were studied in rats. After electrolytic lesion of this area of brain there was impairment in sensory functions and decline in motor component was observed to be statistically significant.

Previous studies have established the usefulness of endothelin-1 (ET-1) for the production of focal cerebral ischemia. The present study assessed the behavioral effects of focal ET-1-induced lesions of the sensorimotor cortex (SMC) in adult rats as well as cellular and structural changes in the contralateral homotopic motor cortex at early (2 days) and later (14 days) post-lesion time points. E...

A large body of literature implicates the amygdala in Pavlovian fear conditioning. In this study, we examined the contribution of individual amygdaloid nuclei to contextual and auditory fear conditioning in rats. Prior to fear conditioning, rats received a large electrolytic lesion of the amygdala in one hemisphere, and a nucleus-specific neurotoxic lesion in the contralateral hemisphere. Neuro...

The frequency or intensity of behavior is often facilitated by the presence of others. This social facilitation has been reported in a variety of animals, including birds and humans. Based on Zajonc's "drive theory," we hypothesized that facilitation and drive have shared neural mechanisms, and that dopaminergic projections from the midbrain to striatum are involved. As the ascending dopaminerg...

Previously-reported evidence showed that freezing to a context previously associated with footshock is impaired by lesion of the ventral periaqueductal gray (vPAG). It has also been shown that stepwise increase in the intensity of the electrical stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) produces alertness, then freezing, and finally escape. These aversive responses are mimicked by mi...

The effect of bilateral electrolytic lesioning of the anterior and posterior parts of the basal forebrain (BF) on learning behavior and changes in neurotransmitters in the central nervous system was investigated in rats. The posterior BF lesion caused more severe impairment than the anterior BF lesion in the acquisition of conditioned avoidance response in a two-way shuttle box. A severe defici...

1. Systemic and regional haemodynamics were determined in conscious Wistar-Kyoto and spontaneously hypertensive rats with the radioactive microsphere technique after sham lesion or bilateral electrolytic lesion of the nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus. 2. Anterior hypothalamic lesions produced an increase in blood pressure, heart rate and cardiac output. 3. In the rats with lesions there were...

In the present study, the effect of the medial septal (MS) lesions on exploratory activity in the open field and the spatial and object recognition memory has been investigated. This experiment compares three types of MS lesions: electrolytic lesions that destroy cells and fibers of passage, neurotoxic - ibotenic acid lesions that spare fibers of passage but predominantly affect the septal nonc...