Food demand functions in mice

Chaney, M.A.; Rowland, Neil E.

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2008.06.002

Cited by 15 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…From another perspective, designs that facilitate or ensure a strict correspondence between rewards earned and consumed might be preferable for some studies. Our work is consistent with published observations showing that a strict correspondence can be achieved with higher-order FR scheduling [45]. Moreover, training mice on FR3 or FR5 schedules of reinforcement may be useful for studies culminating in PR testing.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Thus, we next evaluated operant responding and reward consumption using FR3 and FR5 schedules of reinforcement, reasoning that by increasing the unit cost of each reward [45], we might improve the correspondence between rewards earned and consumed. On Days 1 and 2 of testing, male C57BL/6J mice (n=36) were acclimated to operant testing during 60-min sessions using an FR1 schedule of reinforcement.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of study design variables and their impact on food-maintained operant responding in mice

Haluk

Wickman

2010

Behavioural Brain Research

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Operant conditioning paradigms are useful for studying factors involved in reward, particularly when combined with the tools of genetic manipulation in mice. Published operant studies involving mice vary widely with respect to design, and insight into the consequences of design choices on performance in mice is limited. Here, we evaluated the impact of five design variables on the performance of inbred male mice in operant tasks involving solid food pellets as reinforcing agents. We found that the use of lever-press or nose-poke during FR1 sessions did not impact the performance of C57BL/6 mice, but that the lever-press approach correlated with enhanced performance during PR testing. While FR1 session duration had a notable impact on the rate of acquisition of foodmaintained responding, performance during FR1 and PR sessions was largely unaffected. Higher order schedules of reinforcement (FR3 and FR5) led to elevated responding during both FR and PR sessions, and improved the correspondence between rewards earned and consumed. Single and group-housed mice performed indistinguishably during FR1 and PR sessions, while environmental enrichment combined with group housing accelerated the rate of acquisition of food-maintained responding while decreasing responding during PR testing. Finally, while C57BL/6 and 129/Sv mice exhibited comparable behavior during FR1 sessions, C57BL/6 mice tended to acquire foodmaintained responding faster than 129/Sv counterparts, and exhibited elevated responding during PR testing. Altogether, our findings indicate that while operant performance for food in mice is relatively insensitive to many study parameters, experimental outcomes can be shaped predictably with proper design decisions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of study design variables and their impact on food-maintained operant responding in mice

Haluk

Wickman

2010

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…Given the apparent and procedural differences among these human studies, we developed a protocol to investigate whether mice can adjust their total daily intake to different experimentally-imposed meal frequencies. Our previous studies in mice have found substantial individual variation in meal parameters (Chaney & Rowland 2008); many mice seem to take some prolonged but slow meals, or apparent grazing, especially at night. One purpose of the present experiments is to examine the adaptation of mice to what amounts to an imposed meal pattern.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous work, we have reported closed-economy food demand functions for mice under a variety of conditions in which they emit behavioral responses to obtain food pellets (Atalayer & Rowland 2009; Chaney & Rowland 2008). In those studies, we have found that when work is imposed as an inescapable fixed unit price (FUP), total food intake declines at relatively high unit prices (eg 50-100 responses per 20 mg pellet), but that the meal pattern remains relatively constant despite the fact that inter-pellet intervals and meals become extended in time as FUP increases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In those studies, we have found that when work is imposed as an inescapable fixed unit price (FUP), total food intake declines at relatively high unit prices (eg 50-100 responses per 20 mg pellet), but that the meal pattern remains relatively constant despite the fact that inter-pellet intervals and meals become extended in time as FUP increases. In contrast, when an access cost followed by the unit price is imposed, mice tend to minimize their effort by taking fewer but larger meals (Atalayer & Rowland, 2009; Chaney & Rowland, 2008; Vaughan & Rowland, 2003). Thus, as was first suggested in rats by Collier, Hirsch & Hamlin (1972), meal patterns are determined primarily by the economy in which food is available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of meal frequency and snacking on food demand in mice

Atalayer

Rowland

2012

Appetite

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Ad libitum feeding patterns in mice show substantial differences between laboratories, in addition to large individual and time-of-day differences. In the present study, we examine how mice work for food when access to food is temporally restricted and so they are forced to take discrete meals. In a first experiment, separate groups of ICR:CD1 mice were given access to food for 4, 8 or 16 opportunities or meals per day, with the duration of access at each opportunity adjusted reciprocally so that the total time of availability was 160 min per day in all three conditions. During the periods of availability, mice were able to earn food pellets by nose poke responses, according to an incrementing series of fixed unit prices (FUP: 2,5,10,25) with each schedule in force for 3-4 days. Total food intake was similar in all three groups, indicating that mice generally were able to adjust their intake to a range of temporal availabilities. In each group, food demand fell as FUP increased. In the 8 and 16 meal groups, no food was eaten in many of the opportunities. Within an opportunity, the rate of intake generally declined with time, indicative of satiation. At low FUPs, later opportunities in each day were associated with smaller meals than earlier opportunities; in contrast, at high FUPs the first opportunity was also a small meal. Collectively, these results show that mice eat less at higher costs but not because of time constraints of the schedule: instead, they exhibit an elective anorexia. In the second experiment, we examined whether snacking between imposed meals would affect subsequent meal(s). Mice were adapted to the foregoing 8 opportunity protocol. Then, half the mice received free snacks of sugar cubes after the 3rd, 4th and 5th meal opportunities and the intakes of sugar and pellets were examined at low and high unit costs for pellets (FUP 2 and 25). At FUP2, mice decreased demand for pellets and compensated energetically for the sugar they consumed. At FUP25, mice also decreased demand, but by less than the energy obtained from sugar. These data show that choice for pellets over a free palatable snack, and subsequent compensation of energy intake, is modified by effort and demand.

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Order and disorder: Temporal organization of eating

Rowland

2012

Behavioural Brain Research

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Feeding behavior is described from an evolutionary perspective, and implications for modern neurobiological studies are suggested. In particular, it is argued that meals may have evolved more for sociocultural reasons than physiological imperatives, and that biological approaches to the study of feeding episodes should adopt a more flexible model that is founded in economic or cost-benefit considerations. Specific examples of flexibility in mouse feeding behavior are given. It is further argued that the modern human food environment is so immoderate that physiological manipulations designed to restrain eating have little hope of achieving this goal.

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Food demand functions in mice

Cited by 15 publications

References 21 publications

Evaluation of study design variables and their impact on food-maintained operant responding in mice

Evaluation of study design variables and their impact on food-maintained operant responding in mice

Effects of meal frequency and snacking on food demand in mice

Order and disorder: Temporal organization of eating

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