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Figure 2: Rat in a Skinner box is a typical laboratory scenario used
in the investigation of reward-seeking behavior. Early studies on
reward-seeking behavior assumed that an animal's response to pleasurable
stimuli was largely learned. Since the 1950s, however, it has become evident
that identifiable structures deep within the brain modulate the animal's
experience of pleasure in response to stimuli associated with food, sex and
thirst. Here a rat can directly stimulate the pleasure regions of the brain by
pressing a lever that activates an electrode in its head. Such animals will
stimulate themselves as many as 5,000 times an hour. (Photograph courtesy of
the authors.)
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