Unit activity in the medial septum during differential appetitive conditioning.

Unit activity in the medial septal area of the rat was studied during pavlovian appetitive differential conditioning. The firing pattern of cells in the medial septum is that of suppression to presentation of the conditioned excitor and no significant increase to the presentation of the conditioned inhibitor. This pattern is discussed in the context of a comparison with the pattern found in the lateral septal area and assesses the significance of the motivational value of the stimuli.