James Olds (May 30, 1922 – August 21, 1976) was an American psychologist who co-discovered the

pleasure center The reward system (the mesocorticolimbic circuit) is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience (i.e., "wanting"; desire or craving for a reward and motivation), associative learning (primarily positive reinforcement and class ...

of the brain with Peter Milner while he was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University in 1954. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern neuroscience and received numerous distinctions ranging from election to the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

to the

Newcomb Cleveland Prize The Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is annually awarded to author(s) of outstanding scientific paper published in the Research Articles or Reports sections of ''Science''. Established in 192 ...

of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...

Biography

Early life and education

Olds was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in

Nyack, New York Nyack () is a village located primarily in the town of Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, it retains a very small western section in Clarkstown. It is a suburb of New York City lying approximately n ...

. His father, Leland Olds, later became chairman of the

Federal Power Commission The Federal Power Commission (FPC) was an independent commission of the United States government, originally organized on June 23, 1930, with five members nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The FPC was originally created in 1 ...

under President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As th ...

. His grandfather George D. Olds was the ninth president of

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

. Olds attended college at a number of schools including St. John's College, Annapolis, and the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

but received his undergraduate B.A. from

in 1947. His undergraduate years were interrupted by military service in the U.S. Army during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

as part of the Persian Gulf Command. Following the war, Olds went on to get his Ph.D. at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in the Department of Social Relations under Professor Richard L. Solomon. His thesis was focused on motivation and led to his subsequent interest in the biological basis of motivation.

Career

Following his Ph.D., Olds went on to do postdoctoral work at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University ...

under Donald Olding Hebb, where he made his most important discovery with Peter Milner. Subsequently, Olds moved to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where he took his first academic appointment at the Brain Research Institute. In 1957 Olds was appointed associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He left Michigan in 1969 to become the Bing Professor of Behavioral Biology at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

where he continued his research and led a large lab until his death in a swimming accident in August 1976. His last work was aimed at understanding the mechanisms of learning and memory.

Bibliography

* 1954 Olds, J., and P. Milner. "Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain." '' Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology'' 47:419–27. * 1955 Olds, J. "'Reward' from brain stimulation in the rat." ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' 122:878. *''The growth and structure of motives; psychological studies in the theory of action'' The Free Press (1956) * 1956 Olds, J. "Runway and maze behavior controlled by basomedial forebrain stimulation in the rat." ''Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology'', 49:507–12. * 1956 Olds, J., K. F. Killiam, and P. Bach-Y-Rita. "Self-stimulation of the brain used as a screening method for tranquilizing drugs." ''Science'' 124:265–66. * 1956 Olds, J. "Pleasure center in the brain." ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' 195: 105–16. * 1958 Olds, J. "Self-stimulation of the brain." ''Science'' 127:315–24. * 1958 Olds, J., and M. E. Olds. "Positive reinforcement produced by stimulating hypothalamus with iproniazid and other compounds." ''Science'' 127:1175–76. * 1965 "Operant conditioning of single unit responses". Proc. 23rd Congr. Physiological Sciences. Excerpta Med. Int. Congr. Ser. no. 87, pp. 372–80. * 1967 "The limbic system and behavioural reinforcement." '' Progress in Brain Research''. 27 144–64. * "The central nervous system and the reinforcement of behaviour". ''

American Psychologist ''American Psychologist'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Psychological Association. The journal publishes articles of broad interest to psychologists, including empirical reports and scholarly reviews covering science ...

''. 24 (1969) 114–32. * 1969 Olds, J., and Hirano, T.: "Conditioned responses of hippocampal and other neurons." Electroencephalogr. clin. Neurophysiol. 26 159–66. * 1969 Olds, J., and Best, P. J.: "Single unit patterns during anticipatory behaviour". Electroencephalogr. clin. Neurophysiol. 26 144–58. * 1972 Olds, J., Disterhoft, J. F., Segal, M., Kornblith, C. L., and Hirsh, R.: "Learning centres of rat brain mapped by measuring latencies of conditioned unit responses". ''

Journal of Neurophysiology The ''Journal of Neurophysiology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1938. It is published by the American Physiological Society with Jan "Nino" Ramirez as its editor-in-chief. Ramirez is the Director for the Center f ...

''. 35 202–19. * ''Drives and reinforcements'' Raven Books (1977)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olds, James 1922 births 1976 deaths History of neuroscience Harvard University alumni Amherst College alumni American neuroscientists Behavioral neuroscientists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II University of Michigan faculty