Overnight Performance Decrement with Intracranial Reinforcement

Abstract

An overnight performance decrement is allegedly characteristic of habits maintained by intracranial electrical stimulation. The decrement was here found to be (a) not common to all electrode sites, (b) reduced by one un-reinforced trial, and (c) reduced by intracranial stimulation administered below a rewarding intensity. The electrode sites not associated with performance decrement were in the median forebrain bundle (MFB). Those associated with decrement were somewhat removed from the MFB, at sites other experiments have shown to be both positively and negatively reinforcing. These findings are discussed in relation to Deutsch's theory of simultaneous drive-induction and reinforcement.