This revised ADAMHA Research Scientist Development Award application proposes studies of the ontogeny of motivation, reward and learning, and their physiological and neural substrates. The experiments exploit a developmental system of independent ingestive behavior in infant rats (described by my lab) and techniques for neural analysis recently adapted to infants. The proposed experiments are divided into two related research programs: (a) on ingestive development and (b) on early reward and learning. (a) Studies of ingestive development will assess sensory and physiological controls of ingestion in neonatal rats and describe how these controls develop, including assessing how such development is influenced by experience. Neural mechanisms underlying the developing ingestive system will be studied with brain transection techniques and deoxyglucose autoradiography. (b) Studies of early reward and learning will make use of ingestive rewards to describe and contrast the properties of basic forms of early learning as well as assess their long term effects. Neural mechanisms of early learning will be investigated using unilateral olfactory training techniques and deoxyglucose autoradiography. These experiments provide an ontogenetic analysis of a motivational system, one that can be followed from birth and manipulated in a controlled fashion, a system in which maturing neural systems can be related to changes in behavioral organization. This motivational system will be used to gain a better understanding of how specific early experiences influences the course of individual development, and determine how forms of early learning are represented in the brain. The award will contribute to my continued professional growth in areas of developmental analysis and expand my skill in neural and physiological analysis of behavioral mechanisms. Training plans are detailed in the proposal.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research (K02)
Project #
5K02MH000571-05
Application #
3069969
Study Section
Research Scientist Development Review Committee (MHK)
Project Start
1987-07-01
Project End
1992-06-30
Budget Start
1991-07-01
Budget End
1992-06-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
1991
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Duke University
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
071723621
City
Durham
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27705
Swithers, S E; Hall, W G (1994) Does oral experience terminate ingestion? Appetite 23:113-38
Swithers-Mulvey, S E; Hall, W G (1993) Integration of oral habituation and gastric signals in decerebrate rat pups. Am J Physiol 265:R216-9
Westneat, M W; Hall, W G (1992) Ontogeny of feeding motor patterns in infant rats: an electromyographic analysis of suckling and chewing. Behav Neurosci 106:539-54
Swithers-Mulvey, S E; Hall, W G (1992) Control of ingestion by oral habituation in rat pups. Behav Neurosci 106:710-7
Swithers-Mulvey, S E; Mishu, K R; Hall, W G (1992) Oral habituation in rat pups is in the brainstem. Physiol Behav 51:639-42
Swithers-Mulvey, S E; Miller, G L; Hall, W G (1991) Habituation of oromotor responding to oral infusions in rat pups. Appetite 17:55-67
Hall, W G; Swithers-Mulvey, S E; Agrawal, C M et al. (1991) Analysis of 2-DG autoradiograms using image-averaging and image-differencing procedures for systems-level description of neurobehavioral function. Physiol Behav 50:109-19
Phifer, C B; Ladd, M D; Hall, W G (1991) Effects of hydrational state on ingestion in infant rats: is dehydration the only ingestive stimulus? Physiol Behav 49:695-9
King, C; Hall, W G (1990) Developmental change in unilateral olfactory habituation is mediated by anterior commissure maturation. Behav Neurosci 104:796-807
Swithers, S E; Hall, W G (1989) A nutritive control of independent ingestion in rat pups emerges by nine days of age. Physiol Behav 46:873-9