[The brain electrical processes in dominant alcoholic motivation in rats]

Electrical activity of the cerebral cortex and lateral hypothalamus was recorded in 2 groups of alcoholized rats 1) in motivation state induced by one-day alcohol deprivation and 2) after long-lasting free consumption of alcohol. Non-alcoholized rats served as the control. Neocortical and hypothalamic EEG in non-deprived rats with pronounced attraction to alcohol consumption did not differ from the control. Power spectra of this activity had the peaks in the delta band. The amplitude of the delta rhythm in the cortex was twice as high as that in the hypothalamus. During alcohol deprivation power spectra of the neocortical and hypothalamic EEG were alike, and in most of the cases spectral density in the hypothalamus (with the delta peak) exceeded the cortical one. Termination of the alcohol deprivation by ethanol injection per rectum induced in some animals reversible spectral changes in the hypothalamic EEG and well-pronounced shift of its peak towards the theta rhythm.