Electrical stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle-posterior lateral hypothalamus attenuates gastric lesions

The major purpose of Experiment 1 was to see if electrical stimulation of the brain in an area that supports self-stimulation can act during stress to attenuate the severity of gastric lesions produced by six hours of tailshock and restraint. It was found that rats receiving electrical stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle-posterior lateral hypothalamus had significantly less gastric pathology than control subjects not receiving stimulation. Further experiments sought to examine characteristics of the stimulation that would account for this finding. Experiments 2 and 3 studied signal and analgesic properties, respectively, of the brain stimulation, but did not find evidence for their involvement in the effect.