Shuttling behavior and intracranial self-stimulation reward: behavioral changes as a function of intensity and...

The correlation between "on" time and "off" time in intracranial self-stimulation shuttling behavior under continuous reinforcement was examined. The results showed that if a tendency for positive trend in the data was accounted for, no consistent correlation could be found between within-trial on time and the succeeding or preceding off time either as a function of intensity or number of trials. However, mean on and off times showed a significant positive correlation at low to moderate intensities. Total charge, total time, and proportion of time on remain relatively constant over a series of trials despite significant changes in on time, off time, and crossing rate. The results indicate the importance of selecting suitable measures in the study of shuttling behavior.