This competing continuation application for an ADAMHA Research Scientist Development Award (Level II) proposes studies of the ontogeny of ingestion and its behavioral, physiological, and neural organization. The proposed experiments exploit a developmental system of independent ingestive behavior (devised and described by my lab) and techniques for systems-level, neural analysis recently developed for infant rodents. The control of individual components in the ingestive sequence will be studied in young rats. Emphasis will be placed on the oral response component and in particular on the decrement in oral responsiveness that occurs during feeding experience. This intrinsic, habituation-like mechanism may be a principal integrator of ingestion-related signals. An integrative function for oral habituation would be indicated by influences of physiological state and postingestive signals on habituation parameters such as the initial level of responsiveness, rate of decrement, or duration of decremented responsiveness. The relation of the oral component to earlier components in the sequence will be assessed in experiments measuring olfactory orienting, and the brainstem representation of the oral habituation process will be evaluated in decerebrate pups. The proposed experiments offer a unique conceptualization of ingestion that may contribute to a new, more complete, understanding of feeding control. These experiments will extend our ontogenetic analysis of an appetitive system, one that can be followed from birth and manipulated in a controlled fashion, and in which maturing neural systems can be related to changes in behavioral organization.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research (K02)
Project #
5K02MH000571-08
Application #
2239873
Study Section
Psychobiology and Behavior Review Committee (PYB)
Project Start
1987-07-01
Project End
1997-06-30
Budget Start
1994-07-01
Budget End
1995-06-30
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Duke University
Department
Psychology
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