Compulsive attentive behavior after lesion of the ventral striatum in the cat: a behavioral and electrophysiological study.

Bilateral lesions of the nucleus accumbens in cat elicited the following changes: preservation in tests requiring focused attention, with difficulty to shift to other targets; paucity of movements, animals displaying moderate hypokinesia and loss of reaction to changes in the environment. These symptoms were accompanied by a significant increase in the amount of beta rhythms, an activity that has been shown to be concomitant with the development of focused attentive behavior. The observed behavioral and electrocortical modifications are opposite those that have been previously obtained in the same species after lesions of the ventral tegmental area.