Operant regulation of feeding: A static analysis.

Abstract

Cyclic-ratio schedules are a rapid method for studying the operant regulation of feeding rate. The cyclic method produces results comparable to traditional but time-consuming parametric methods. Performance on cyclic-ratio schedules is well described by a linear regulatory model that embodies three quantitative feedback assumptions: (a) that rate of feeding is regulated by the rate of operant behavior, (b) that taste factors have an additive effect on the rate of the operant response, and (c) that regulatory "gain" is inversely related to body weight. This model accurately describes poorer regulatory performance at high body weights and following amphetamine administration, and the effects of altered diet palatability on preferred feeding rates.

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

“…Figure 2 and Table 1 show that, relative to saline administration, sodium pentobarbital administration also produced a significant increase in response rates at all ratio values, whereas picrotoxin administration had the opposite effect. All of the shifts in the response functions observed in the current study were similar to those produced by manipulating the incentive value or palatability of the reinforcer in previous studies utilizing this technique (Ettinger and Staddon 1983;O'Hare et al 1996). The results of the current study therefore suggest that CDP and sodium pentobarbital affected consummatory behavior by increasing the perceived incentive value or palatability of the reinforcer.…”

“…Later studies suggested that the effect of benzodiazepines on food intake was mediated through enhancement of the palatability of the ingestant (Cooper and Yearbury 1988;Berridge and Pecina 1995;Cooper 1995, 2000;Cooper 2004) and that benzodiazepines did not affect regulatory factors associated with feeding. None of the compounds used in the current study affected the slopes of the obtained response functions; the slopes of these functions have been shown to be sensitive to 'regulatory' manipulations, such as altering the body weights of subjects (Ettinger and Staddon 1983;O'Hare et al 1996). All of the shifts in the response functions observed in the current study have been previously shown to occur only after manipulating the palatability of the reinforcer (O'Hare et al 1996).…”

The Sensorimotor Striatum Is Necessary for Serial Order Learning

“…To measure sensitivity to partial reinforcement and ability to press a single lever at higher rates, eighteen of the mice (7 controls, 5 DLS, and 6 DMS) were exposed to a cyclic ratio schedule on the left lever following the completion of sequence training, approximately 4 weeks after surgery (Ettinger and Staddon, 1983). The cyclic ratio schedule used consisted of 5 values: 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32.…”

Economics, Ecologics, and Mechanics: The Dynamics of Responding Under Conditions of Varying Motivation

“…Alternate models of this basic process are possible. Equation 5 is similar to a regulatory model proposed by Ettinger and Staddon (1983). Townsend (1992) explored a dynamic motivational system that, in place of Equation 5, had motivation grow as a function of the deviation between the current motivational level and the ideal, with a threshold that motivation must exceed before responding will be initiated.…”