Summary: | The reticular activating system has attracted the interest of psychologists for more than a decade. Theories have been developed, and the concept of arousal has become quite popular in a number of fields of psychology. There are, however, not many behavioural experiments directly dealing with this system, in spite of its theoretical importance. In this thesis, an attempt will be made to reveal the role of the mesencephalic reticular formation, which constitutes a part of the activating system, in some aspects of behaviour. A series of experiments, in which the method of intracranial injection was used, will be reported after a review of the present knowledge about the reticular system and an account of methodological development.
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