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Blogging on Peer-Reviewed ResearchI don't really know why I'm getting so angry about this little paper. I got it in my weekly email with my standard PubMed searches. I read the title "Consistent rewarding or aversive effects of the electrical stimulation of the lateral parabrachial complex" and have no idea what this is all about. The paper was listed under my ' operant conditioning' search terms, so it may be relevant. If only I knew what animals they worked on, maybe that'll give me a clue. So I read the abstract:
Electrical stimulation of the external lateral parabrachial subnucleus (LPBe) may induce rewarding or aversive behaviors in animals subjected to two different learning discrimination tasks. Statistical analysis found no significant differences between the group receiving electrical stimulation of the brain and the non-stimulated control group. However, rewarding or aversive behaviors were consistent and positively correlated between the two discrimination tasks in the stimulated group. Thus, these tests differed in the gustatory stimuli used, in the right/left position of stimulation-associated/non-associated flavors, and in the cage in which experiments were performed. This behavioral consistency and corresponding correlation were not observed in the non-stimulated control group. These results suggest the existence of aversive and reward systems that are differentiated but anatomically very close. Therefore, the activation of aversive or rewarding systems may depend on the precise location of the electrode implanted in the LPBe of each animal.
And still no mention of what the model system was. I figured, this is like soccer in German newspapers. In Germany, soccer is such a dominant sport, that you could believe the entire German society revolves around it. It definitely has surpassed religion in popularity as there easily are more people watching soccer games (stadiums and TV combined) on Sunday than you could find in churches. So if an article covering an important game in the sports section of a German newspaper only mentions the club names but not the sport, it's always soccer. So this paper must be about vertebrates, most likely rats or mice.
Of course now I had to dowload the paper (luckily I had access to it via instiutional subscription) and read the introduction. Still no mention of the model system, not in title, abstract or introduction!! By this time I'm so riled up, I don't even care what the papr is about any more or if it is relevant to what I do. I only want to find out what the hell they used for their experiments. Finally, in the methods section, they say that they used Wistar rats! Go figure! This is how rats are like soccer: people assume that's all there is and so they don't even mention it.
Posted on Wednesday 20 August 2008 - 08:39:44 comment: 0
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