A developmental strategy will be applied to the behavioral, physiological, and neural analysis of early independent ingestion in rats. The proposed experiments make use of a species that undergoes a remarkable postnatal neural maturation and related behavioral ontogeny, each compressed into a time period that is practical to investigate. The use of developmental analysis provides unique opportunities to learn about the initial neurobehavioral organization of early appearing systems such as those for ingestion. The proposed research will: 1) define behavioral characteristics of the initiation, guidance, and maintenance of early independent ingestion and its related affective features; 2) investigate the ontogency of specific controls of ingestion and ingestion-related affect; 3) study the systems for gastric control of ingestion by taking advantage of simplifications provided by the immaturity of young pups; and 4) study the neural basis of early ingestion and its control using decerebrations and deoxyglucose autoradiographic techniques. An improved understanding of the origins of independent ingestion and its neural basis in rats may contribute to understanding ingestive processes in other species, and to insights about feeding and feeding pathologies in humans. Since ingestive behavior is one of the few complex appetitive behaviors present throughout life, these experiments also have a more general significance, that of providing a representative ontogenetic analysis of a """"""""model"""""""" motivational system.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD017457-08
Application #
3314444
Study Section
Biopsychology Study Section (BPO)
Project Start
1982-09-01
Project End
1991-11-30
Budget Start
1989-12-01
Budget End
1991-11-30
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
1990
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
Myers, K P; Hall, W G (1998) Evidence that oral and nutrient reinforcers differentially condition appetitive and consummatory responses to flavors. Physiol Behav 64:493-500
Swithers, S E; Westneat, M W; Hall, W G (1998) Electromyographic analysis of oral habituation in rat pups. Physiol Behav 63:197-203
Myers, K P; Arnold, H M; Hall, W G (1997) Sensitization of ingestive responding in preweanling rats: time course and specificity. Behav Neurosci 111:413-23
Swithers, S E (1996) Effects of oral experience on rewarding properties of oral stimulation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 20:27-32
Swithers, S E (1995) Effects of physiological state on oral habituation in developing rats: cellular and extracellular dehydration. Dev Psychobiol 28:131-45
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

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