Shock-induced defensive fighting in the rat: evidence for cholinergic mediation in the lateral hypothalamus

Bilateral microinjections of scopolamine into the lateral hypothalamus significantly reduced shock-induced defensive fighting, without altering jump threshold values. Further investigation of the lateral hypothalamus demonstrated that (1) fighting increased in response to bilateral microinjections of physostigmine and carbachol, (2) social attraction remained unaltered following scopolamine treatment, (3) neither motor co-ordination nor motor activity was significantly affected by any of the treatments.