Abstract

This proposal is designed to see if a functional approach can improve understanding of aversively motivated behavior. The research tests the hypothesis that if there is a risk of predation, when an animal is foraging and/or consuming food, the animal will modify its activity patterns in such a way as to reduce that risk. A model of aversive motivation is described that predicts that the presence of aversive stimulation will not simply suppress appetitively motivated behavior (as two-process theory predicts) but rather it should cause appetitively motivated behavior to become """"""""reorganized"""""""". The proposed experiments will examine the effects of increasing the probability of aversive electric shock on meal patterning. Rats will live (i.e. spend 24-h a day for many months) in a modified operant chamber. Foraging and consumption of food will be modeled by having food made available on chained FR:CRF reinforcement schedules. A number of dependent variables related to meal patterning and energy balance will be examined. Preliminary results obtained so far show that rats decrease meal frequency when shock probability is increased. However, net caloric intake and body weight are defended by compensatory increases in meal size. This behavior is successful at reducing the time the rat is exposed to the risk of shock without compromising energy balance.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01MH039786-01
Application #
3377661
Study Section
Psychobiology and Behavior Research Review Committee (BBP)
Project Start
1985-01-01
Project End
1985-12-31
Budget Start
1985-01-01
Budget End
1985-12-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1985
Total Cost
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Dartmouth College
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041027822
City
Hanover
State
NH
Country
United States
Zip Code

  Publications

Maren, S (1998) Effects of 7-nitroindazole, a neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) inhibitor, on locomotor activity and contextual fear conditioning in rats. Brain Res 804:155-8
De Oca, B M; DeCola, J P; Maren, S et al. (1998) Distinct regions of the periaqueductal gray are involved in the acquisition and expression of defensive responses. J Neurosci 18:3426-32
Anagnostaras, S G; Maren, S; DeCola, J P et al. (1998) Testicular hormones do not regulate sexually dimorphic Pavlovian fear conditioning or perforant-path long-term potentiation in adult male rats. Behav Brain Res 92:1-9
Maren, S; Aharonov, G; Stote, D L et al. (1996) N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in the basolateral amygdala are required for both acquisition and expression of conditional fear in rats. Behav Neurosci 110:1365-74
Maren, S; Fanselow, M S (1995) Synaptic plasticity in the basolateral amygdala induced by hippocampal formation stimulation in vivo. J Neurosci 15:7548-64
Anagnostaras, S G; Maren, S; Fanselow, M S (1995) Scopolamine selectively disrupts the acquisition of contextual fear conditioning in rats. Neurobiol Learn Mem 64:191-4
Kim, J J; Rison, R A; Fanselow, M S (1993) Effects of amygdala, hippocampus, and periaqueductal gray lesions on short- and long-term contextual fear. Behav Neurosci 107:1093-8
Fanselow, M S; DeCola, J P; Young, S L (1993) Mechanisms responsible for reduced contextual conditioning with massed unsignaled unconditional stimuli. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 19:121-37
Fanselow, M S; Lester, L S; Helmstetter, F J (1988) Changes in feeding and foraging patterns as an antipredator defensive strategy: a laboratory simulation using aversive stimulation in a closed economy. J Exp Anal Behav 50:361-74
Fanselow, M S; Tighe, T J (1988) Contextual conditioning with massed versus distributed unconditional stimuli in the absence of explicit conditional stimuli. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 14:187-99

Showing the most recent 10 out of 13 publications