[The dopaminergic and serotoninergic components of the self-stimulation reaction of the lateral hypothalamus in rats with disruption of the medial prefrontal cortex].

Amphetamine (1 mg/kg) promoted a pedal self-stimulation of lateral hypothalamus of Wistar rats in the Skinner box. An unipolar lesion of medical prefrontal cortex with kainic acid 10-14 days prior to an experiment did not prevent the facilitating effect of amphetamine on self-stimulation, though the levels of hypothalamic noradrenaline and dopamine are 43% and 4.5-fold decreased respectively, the hypothalamic serotonin concentration not changing. Lysergic acid diethylamid (10 mkg/kg) did not influence on self-stimulation response in rats with damaged medial prefrontal cortex, but after preliminary administration prevented the stimulating effect of amphetamine on self-stimulation of lateral hypothalamus. The data are discussed from the point of view of a hypothesis that the phenomenon obtained is associated with the presence of a hypothalamic autoregulatory dopaminergic system providing the realization of self-stimulation. However, it does not exclude that the modulating influence of medial prefrontal cortex on lateral hypothalamus is connected with not only dopaminergic but with serotoninergic axons too.