An operant determination of the behavioral mechanism of benzodiazepine enhancement of food intake

O’Hare, Eugene; Kim, E.M.; Tierney, Kevin

doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0412-5

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(39 reference statements)

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“…Consistent with this parallel in the feeding microstructure mode of action of FG 7142 and naltrexone, recent taste reactivity studies likewise suggest similarity and cross-talk between opioid and GABAergic systems in modulating the hedonic impact of natural taste reward (Richardson et al, 2005). In addition, a very recent study that used a cyclic-ratio operant schedule paradigm similarly found that orexigenic properties of benzodiazepine receptor agonists appeared to be mediated through a mechanism affecting perceived palatability rather than through homeostatic, regulatory effects on food intake (O'Hare et al, 2006). The results emphasize similarities in the microstructure modes of action of a benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonist and opioid receptor antagonist to reduce food intake, but also indicate greater specificity of action by FG 7142, which did not modify total water drunk.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

FG 7142 Specifically Reduces Meal Size and the Rate and Regularity of Sustained Feeding in Female Rats: Evidence that Benzodiazepine Inverse Agonists Reduce Food Palatability

Cottone

Sabino

Steardo

et al. 2006

Neuropsychopharmacol

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Benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonists reduce food intake in males, but their actions in females, in whom stress-related eating disorders are more common, as well as their behavioral mode of action remain unclear. The consummatory effects of benzodiazepine receptor ligands have alternately been hypothesized to reflect changes in the hedonic evaluation of food or secondary effects of anxietyrelated or cognitive properties. To test the anorectic mode of action of benzodiazepine inverse agonists, the effects of FG 7142 on feeding microstructure were studied in nondeprived female Wistar rats (n ¼ 32). Microstructure analysis used a novel meal definition that recognizes prandial drinking. On pharmacologically synchronized diestrus I, rats were pretreated (À30 min dark onset) with the benzodiazepine partial inverse agonist FG 7142 (i.p. 0, 3.75, 7.5, 15 mg/kg) in a between-subjects design. FG 7142 delayed the onset of (16-541%), decreased the amount eaten (36-52%) and drunk (63-87%), and reduced the time spent drinking (59-87%) within the first nocturnal meal. Dose-dependent incremental anorexia continued 6 h into the dark cycle, whereas FG 7142 did not suppress the quantity, duration or rate of drinking past the first meal. Treated rats ate smaller meals (17-42%) of normal duration. This reflected that FG 7142 slowed feeding within meals (9-38%) by decreasing the regularity and maintenance of feeding from pellet-to-pellet. FG 7142 did not influence postprandial satiety; meal frequency and inter-meal intervals were unaffected. FG 7142 anorexia was blocked by the benzodiazepine receptor antagonist flumazenil in a 2:1 molar ratio (n ¼ 17 rats). The very early, nonspecific ( + 10 min), but not subsequent (2.5, 4.5 h) feeding-specific phase, of FG 7142 anorexia was mirrored by anxiogenic-like behavior in FG 7142-treated (7.5 mg/ kg) female rats (n ¼ 48) in the elevated plus-maze. Thus, benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonists preferentially lessen the maintenance of feeding in female rats, effects opposite to those of palatable food.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

FG 7142 Specifically Reduces Meal Size and the Rate and Regularity of Sustained Feeding in Female Rats: Evidence that Benzodiazepine Inverse Agonists Reduce Food Palatability

Cottone

Sabino

Steardo

et al. 2006

Neuropsychopharmacol

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“…All trials ended with an inter-trial interval of 1 s. The sequence of ratio requirements used was: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2; and this cycle was repeated up to five times within each session (maximum of 3 h). We chose an arithmetic progression of ratios to address concerns that birds might fail to complete very high ratios [ 33 ]. The schedule parameters were chosen to ensure the birds did not become satiated [ 34 , 35 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early-life begging effort reduces adult body mass but strengthens behavioural defence of the rate of energy intake in European starlings

Dunn¹,

Andrews²,

Nettle³

et al. 2018

R. Soc. open sci.

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Animals require strategies for coping with periods when food is scarce. Such strategies include storing fat as a buffer, and defending the rate of energy intake by changing foraging behaviour when food becomes difficult to obtain. Storage and behavioural defence may constitute alternative strategies for solving the same problem. We would thus expect any developmental influences that limit fat storage in adulthood to also induce a compensatory alteration in adult foraging behaviour, specifically when food is hard to obtain. In a cohort of hand-reared European starlings, we found that higher manipulated early-life begging effort caused individuals to maintain consistently lower adult body mass over a period of two years. Using an operant foraging task in which we systematically varied the costs of obtaining food, we show that higher early-life begging effort also caused stronger behavioural defence of the rate of energy intake when food was more costly to obtain. Among individuals with the same developmental history, however, those individuals who defended their rate of energy intake most strongly were also the heaviest. Our results are relevant to understanding why there are marked differences in body weight and foraging behaviour even among individuals inhabiting the same environment.

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“…Although defence of feeding rate was not affected by deprivation status, neither were preferred feeding rates, suggesting that some of our results were in line with Staddon’s predictions and results. Further work needs to focus on better manipulating satiation in starlings before we can determine whether the CR schedule can be used to distinguish between the effects of different behavioural variables on feeding behaviour in the same manner as with rats [ 4 , 5 , 8 , 21 , 23 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both predictions were corroborated by subsequent experimental work in rats [ 2 , 3 ]. Since its development nearly 40 years ago, the CR schedule has been largely used by researchers as a behavioural assay to understand how various pharmacological manipulations affect feeding in rats [ 4 , 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the cyclic ratio schedule as an assay of feeding behaviour in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Dunn¹,

Andrews²,

Nettle³

et al. 2018

PLoS ONE

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The cyclic ratio (CR) schedule is a behavioural assay developed to study feeding in rats, in which the number of operant responses required to obtain food reward (the ratio requirement) increases and then decreases in a repeating cycle. In a recent study, we used the CR schedule with European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) to investigate the effects of an early-life manipulation on adult feeding behaviour. As this was the first time the CR schedule had been used with any bird species, a more in-depth evaluation is warranted. Here, we performed a fuller CR experiment with the same birds as the prior study, a year later. First, we examine the individual consistency of feeding behaviour between experimental sessions and also between CR schedules comprising different ratio requirement progressions. We found that between-session consistency was poor to moderate, and that a geometric ratio progression provided greater between-session consistency than an arithmetic ratio progression. Second, we tried to replicate some of the canonical findings from rats working on CR schedules. In contrast to findings from rats, we found that defence of feeding rates did not increase when starlings were acutely food deprived. However, as in rats, we found that the post-reinforcement pause increased linearly with the upcoming ratio requirement, suggesting that starlings were able to learn the cyclic nature of the schedule. Third, we compared the results from the present study concerning the impacts of our early-life treatment with those from our earlier study. We found that the majority of our previous findings were replicated in the same individuals one year on, reinforcing our previous conclusion that the early-life manipulation had canalised our birds into two groups with different patterns of feeding rate defence.

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An operant determination of the behavioral mechanism of benzodiazepine enhancement of food intake

Abstract: These results suggest that the food intake enhancement properties of benzodiazepines are mediated through a mechanism affecting perceived palatability.

Cited by 4 publications

References 41 publications

FG 7142 Specifically Reduces Meal Size and the Rate and Regularity of Sustained Feeding in Female Rats: Evidence that Benzodiazepine Inverse Agonists Reduce Food Palatability

FG 7142 Specifically Reduces Meal Size and the Rate and Regularity of Sustained Feeding in Female Rats: Evidence that Benzodiazepine Inverse Agonists Reduce Food Palatability

Early-life begging effort reduces adult body mass but strengthens behavioural defence of the rate of energy intake in European starlings

Evaluating the cyclic ratio schedule as an assay of feeding behaviour in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

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