ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews an extensive body of neuroscience literature. It explores the certain brain pathways are responsible for the two major classes of behavior – stimulation-seeking and stimulation-avoidance. The functions of brain areas do not correspond in any simple way to current categories of motivation and emotion, since different behaviors can be elicited by direct electrical stimulation of the same brain area, using the same parameters of stimulation, depending on contingencies in the testing situation. It is widely believed that certain loci in the brain are responsible for specific categories of behaviors such as eating and drinking. The areas of the brain that elicit stimulation-avoidance-type reactions when directly stimulated include parts of the anterior and ventromedial hypothalamus, the septum, anterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, subcallosal and precallosal regions. Stimulation-seeking includes sympathetic nervous system arousal and motor-motivational behavior; that is, an increase in "interactional commerce" with the environment.
