The nature of affective bonds and the degree of personal responsibility as detenninants of risk taking for " self and others " *

Different groups of adult rats were subjected to discrete lesions in one of ten different areas of the brain which have previously been found to be implicated in retention of learned brightness and pattern discrimination habits. When tested for the rodent's predictable (instinctive) preference for the dark, eight groups showed deficient preference scores and two showed preference scores comparable to that of the control group. Those groups with lesions of brain structures not implicated in retention of learned visual discrimination habits exhibited normal preference scores. These data suggest the existence of common as well as diverse neuroanatomical substrata necessary for the expression of both classes of adaptive behavior.