Frequency, duration, and speed of wheel running of rats as a function of age and starvation

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether age differences in amounts of wheel running of starved rats were due to the frequency of bursts of running, to the average duration of bursts, to speed, or to any combination of these parameters. The experiment was carried out according to a 3 by 2 by 2 mixed model design. The independent variables were age (67, 293, and 746 days old at the start of starvation), food deprivation (total starvation vs ad lib), and occasion of measurement (initial vs maximum activity). The dependent variables were number of wheel revolutions, number of bursts of activity, number of seconds of running per burst, and revolutions per secono. The results indicated that acutely starved rats run more often, for longer periods, and at higher speeds than do sated rats, and that with increased age rats run less often, for a shorter time, and at slower speeds.The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether age-dependent decrements in the amounts of daily wheel running of starved rats were due to differences in the frequency of bursts of running, to differences in the average duration of running, to differences in the speed of running, or to differences in any combination of these parameters. With increasing weight loss, the amount of wheel running of young starved rats increases to a maximum and then decreases shortly before death (Campbell, 1964). This pattern of running changes only quantitatively with increasing age. A previous experiment (Jakubczak, 1967) indicated that, independent of drive level, amounts of wheel running of starved rats decrease with increasing age. In that investigation, the cumulative total of wheel running of starved rats decrease with increasing age. In that investigation, the cumulative total of wheel revolutions during 24 h was used as the dependent variable. However, rats do not run continually during the 24·h period, but distribute their running in a number of episodes or bursts of running (Slonaker, 1912). More recently, Premack and Schaeffer (1963) found that during a 1-h sample of running, starvation increases the cumulative amount of wheel running of rats by increasing both the frequency and average duration of bursts of running, but has little effect on speed of running. Consequently, the age differences in the amounts of wheel running of starved rats (Jakubczak,

Characteristics of growth-inducing exercise

“…Furthermore, hamsters are relatively slow runners compared to other animal species. Gerbils [26] and hamsters run at similar speed (30-51 cm/sec, 2-3 UBL/sec) while rats [14,25], weasels [20], and white-footed mice [16,17] run between two and four times faster.…”

“…Daily linear velocity (km/day) of hamsters and white-footed mice [15,16,17] is between 12 and 14. Gerbils (Table 1), foxes [18,20] and weasels [18,20] run twice as much, while rat [14,25] covers only 2-5 km/day.…”

Effects of lesions of the amygdala, preoptic area, and hypothalamus on estradiol-induced activity in the female rat.

“…Food deprivation has been found to produce a marked hyperactivity in rats (e.g., Jakubczak, 1973). The present experiment examined the effects of this activity-inducing stimulus on the wheel running of ovariectomized female rats following MP, AH, or sham lesions.…”

Flavor Aversion Learning Based on Running: A Review

“…Future research on the neurobiological basis of running-based FAL will help in understanding the nature of this learning. Other topics to be explored are the age and sex of the animals, not only because the amount and pattern of wheel running largely depends on these variables (e.g., Eikelboom & Mills, 1988;Jakubczak, 1973;Mondon et al, 1985;Tokuyama et al, 1982), but also because these variables affect conventional, drug-based FAL (e.g., Chambers et al, 1981;Hurwitz et al, 2013;Misanin et al, 1988Misanin et al, , 2002Randall-Thompson & Riley, 2003).…”