EFFECTS OF HIPPOCAMPECTOMY ON CONSUMMATORY BEHAVIOR AND MOVEMENT-INHIBITION IN RATS

The daily food and water intake of hooded rats with small and large, bilateral lesions of the hippocampus as well as neocortical and sham-operated controls was measured for 16 days preoperatively and 60 days postoperatively. These same subjects were then tested in a continuous-trial passive-avoidance task. The results indicated that the hippocampectomized subjects did not consume any more food or water than did the operated control groups. Moreover, the hippocampal animals were not deficient, relative to the control subjects, in withholding a prepotent approach tendency to avoid a noxious stimulus. These results caution against an unequivocal acceptance of prevailing views implicating the hippocampus in the regulation of food and water consumption as well as certain response-inhibition debilities. © 1968.