Instrumental avoidance conditioning of increased leg lowering in the spinal rat

Five pairs of chronic spinal rats were trained to lower a hind leg and then were tested for retention using a counter-balanced instrumental avoidance paradigm in which one animal served as the experimental and the other as a yoked control subject. An additional three pairs of rats were used in this paradigm after their lumbosacral spinal cords had been removed by aspiration. The results indicate that the chronic spinal rat is capable of instrumental avoidance conditioning when leg lowering is the response, and that the lumbosacral spinal cord is essential for this phenomenon.