Four experiments replicated the phenomenon that rats responding for intracranial stimulation (ICS) fail to show a conditioned emotional response following fear conditioning. Procedural variations in the experiments indicated that failure to suppress responding was not due to alteration of footshock thresholds, failure to perceive the CS, ICS-bound resistance to distraction, or disruption of associative processes by neural disorganization. The results were compatible with an incentive model of rewarding ICS.

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