[The functional asymmetry of the rabbit medial hypothalamus during the avoidance reaction].

Thresholds of avoidance reactions and changes in correlated neuronal activity in the visual and sensorimotor cortical areas were studied in rabbits under conditions of stimulation of right (RH) and left (LH) medial hypothalamus. Avoidance threshold were lower during stimulation of the LH (112 +/- 12 mcA) than during stimulation of the RH (166 +/- 22 mcA). The stimulation of LH was more effective in inducing reorganization in correlated activity of neurons: only after the left stimulation (inducing active avoidance) the number of neuronal pairs with correlated activity in the left hemisphere increased (49%) and delays up to 120 ms appeared between the discharges of visual and sensorimotor cortical neurons (the first one led). The obtained evidence suggests the more important role of the LH than RH in motivation.