SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON ROLE OF TELENCEPHALON IN FOOD-REINFORCED BEHAVIOUR IN GOLDFISH, CARASSIUS-AURATUS

Summaryo1.The failure in acquisition and retrieval of shock avoidance tasks in forebrainless fish is not due to a lessened sensitivity to shock, or to failure to manifest signs of fear.2.Normal and forebrainless fish show similar speeds of feeding, and the hunger drive is comparable.3.The ability to learn a simple simultaneous vertical v. horizontal discrimination is not interfered with by the removal of the forebrain. The introduction of a 5-sec delay between response and reward causes extinction of the discrimination in the operated, but not in the normal fish.4.Use of an operant feeding situation, involving an inbuilt delay, shows that the forebrainless fish also acquire an association more slowly than normals if delay is involved. Nevertheless, a stable association can be formed, and after more training the trained forebrainless fish show a feeding rate equal to that of the normal fish. The removal of the forebrain thus has no gross effect on feeding rate.5.The hypothesis of the teleost forebrain as a primitive holding or attention centre is considered in the light of the available evidence. © 1969.