Re: Mind Control, 1965

T.R. Fullhart (trf2020@ksu.edu)
Mon, 19 Oct 1998 09:50:58 -0500

>All elementary psychology clases cover these experiments quite thoroughly.
>They are very famous and are the basis for many sub-fields of neuroscience.
>The original rat experiment was done by B.F. Skinner in the 50s and was
>called "the skinner box." The implant was an electrode which was put into
>the rat's hypothalamus (pleasure center of the brain which controls
>sensations from eating, sleeping, sex). When an electrical stimulus was
>provided by the subject, (in this case a lever the rat presses) the
>interesting thing they noted was that the animal couldnt get enough
>pleasure -- in other words they couldnt be satiated by the amount of
>pleasure.

B.F. Skinner only used food pellets with his subjects. He did not implant anything into the brain of his animals. A "Skinner Box" is just a box that has levers in it, when one of the levers is pressed, a food pellet is released. Skinner studied classical and operant conditioning, he was not a biologist researching the brain.

Someone else must have used Skinner's work for inspiration that led to direct stimulation.

http://www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/genetics/behavior/learning/SkinnerBox .html 

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