Defensive response to prey and time spent biting prey in domestic cats were both transiently and lastingly changed by high-frequency electrical stimulation of the lateral part of the basomedial amygdala. The electrical stimulation did not produce seizure discharges, but it did transiently reduce potentials evoked in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) by single pulsed stimulation of the amygdala. At the same time, defensive response to rats decreased, and time spent biting rats increased. Size of the evoked potential covaried directly with the transient changes in defensive behavior but not with the changes in predatory attack. More lasting decreases in defensive behavior were not associated with a lasting decrease in amygdalohypothalamic transmission. Preliminary data suggest that lasting changes in defensiveness may be mediated by the ventral hippocampus. These findings, in combination with other studies, indicate that variation in transmission of excitatory activity between the amygdala and VMH is at least necessary for variation in defensive response to prey.
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Robert E. Adamec (1990) studied this question.
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