Electrical Brain Stimulation for Punishment and Reward

Abstract

Recently, electrical stimulation on the brain has been widely used for neuroscience research as well as medical purposes such as deep brain stimulation (DBS), cochlear implant, and spinal cord stimulation [1]–[3]. In this study, electrical brain stimulation was employed to control rodent's movement behaviors. Tungsten wire electrodes were characterized and implanted into the target regions of rat brain. Two brain areas were targeted; medial forelimb bundle (MFB) and amygdala as a reward and punishment, respectively. MFB is known to be related with learning and memory while amygdala is the center for fear modulation in the brain. The stimulation-induced behaviors of rats were monitored and analyzed for both reward and punishment.