Male rats showed a clear preference for one forepaw when they were trained to press a lever for food reward. The preference was then changed by training, by local anaesthetic injection into the preferred paw, by lesions in the striatal output pathways in the brain, or by neurotoxin injection into the striatum contralateral to the side of the preferred paw. The pressing rate was not changed in spite of the change in paw use in any of these operations. This result is in marked contrast to the effect of reducing the dopamine concentration on the side contralateral to the preferred paw; in this case a marked reduction in responding is seen as well as the change in paw use. Thus medial forebrain bundle 6-hydroxydopamine lesions are more debilitating than either striatal damage or peripheral paralysis at least in the short term.