Apomorphine pecking in the pigeon

Pecking activity elicited by apomorphine was studied quantitatively in intact and thalamic pigeons. While apomorphine pecking is easily observed in the intact pigeon, it is absent in the acute thalamic animal. I reappears, however, in the chronic preparation simultaneously with the recovery of spontaneous pecking. Apomorphine pecking is described by satiation and increased by fasting. Reticular stimulation produces reversible blockade of both apomorphine and spontaneous pecking with the same parameters, without increase in heart rate. Apomorphine pecking can be observed only in the presence of visual contrast, and is always aimed at the contrast points or edges. A decrease in contrast produces a decrease in the number of pecks delivered to the contrast points and an increase in those missing the target, while the total number of pecks delivered in a unit time is unaffected. A lowering of the background luminance is followed by a decrease in the total number of pecks, which is mostly due to a reduction of those aimed at the contrast points. All these findings are discussed and it is concluded that: i) apomorphine exerts an excitatory action (direct or indirect) on the hypothalamic feeding centers; hence apomorphine pecking can be considered as a pharmacologically motivated behavior; ii) visual contrast exerts a dual action on apomorphine pecking, namely it acts both as triggering stimulus and goal object; iii) the decrease in apomorphine pecking induced by lowering the ambient light intensity is probably due to a decrease in the level of the general arousal.