Electrical stimulation of the septal area in the rat: prolonged suppression of water intake and correlation with self-stimulation.

The role of the septal region in the control of drinking and self-stimulation behavior in the rat was investigated under conditions of forced and self-delivered brain stimulation. Sixty minutes of intermittent septal stimulation significantly reduced post-stimulation water consumption in water deprived rats without affecting the consumption of solid food or a liquid diet following food deprivation. In addition, those animals demonstrating the greatest suppression of water intake after forced stimulation also emitted the highest response rates to obtain rewarding brain stimulation from the same electrodes. These results support the hypothesis that the septal region plays an inhibitory role in the control of drinking behavior and suggests a relationship between the reward obtained by electrical brain stimulation and the central neural systems controlling thirst in the rat.