Effect of procurement wheel running on the rate of drinking in rats

Effects of number of cagemates on home cage ethanol drinking during proximal cagemate drinking (PCD) procedures in male and female CD-1 mice

The present experiment evaluated the effects of the Number of Cagemates (0 vs 1 vs 2) on home cage ethanol drinking during Proximal Cagemate Drinking (PCD) procedures in Male and Female CD-1 mice. Continuous-access home cage 2-bottle (ethanol vs. water) free-choice procedures were employed. PCD procedures eliminate the distracting effects of direct physical contact between Drinkers and their Cagemates on ethanol drinking by imposing a translucent plastic barrier strip between them. If direct physical contact distracts from drinking, then one Cagemate would drink more ethanol and more water than two Cagemates housed together on the same side of the barrier. This would be the case even if two Cagemates stimulated more ethanol drinking in the Drinker housed on the other side of the barrier, due to the social stimulation effects of additional Cagemates. Results revealed that the ethanol intake of Female Drinkers was directly related to the number of Cagemates on the other side of the barrier strip, but this social stimulation effect was not observed in Male Drinkers. For Male Cagemates and Female Cagemates, the single Cagemate provided elevated ethanol intake and elevated water intake relative to the ethanol intake and water intake of each Cagemate in the two Cagemates condition. The data revealed that direct physical contact between Cagemates reduced their ethanol intake, even while stimulating ethanol intake of the Drinker on the other side of the barrier, indicating that the effects of social stimulation on ethanol drinking are not entirely due to effects of modeling or peer pressure. The PCD procedures allow the evaluation of effects of a broad range of social factors on home cage ethanol drinking in mice.

Effects of Cagemate Gender and the Cagemate's access to ethanol on ethanol and water intake of the proximal male or the proximal female CD-1 mouse

The effects of social stimulation on ethanol drinking in humans may depend on the gender of the drinker, the gender of the social stimulus, and the availability of ethanol provided to the social stimulus. The present study employed the Proximal Cagemate Drinking (PCD) Procedures to evaluate the effects of the gender of the social stimulus Cagemate mouse and the effects of providing ethanol to the Cagemate mouse on the drinking of ethanol and water by the male or female CD-1 Drinker mouse. Twelve groups of subjects were arranged in a 3 × 2 × 2 factorial design with 3 levels of Cagemate Gender (Male vs. Female vs. None), 2 levels of Drinker Gender (Male vs. Female), and 2 levels of Cagemate Ethanol (Ethanol vs. No Ethanol). In the 8 groups assigned to social housing conditions, each Drinker mouse was housed with a Cagemate mouse on opposite sides of a clear plastic shoebox cage equipped with a clear plastic barrier that divided the cage lengthwise into 2 equal compartments. Six groups of Drinkers and 4 groups of Cagemates were provided with continuous access to 2 bottles (ethanol vs. water), while the 4 groups of Cagemates in the No Ethanol condition were provided with 2 bottles containing water. Results revealed that providing the Cagemate with ethanol elevated ethanol intake and ethanol preference but reduced water intake in Drinkers in Other-Gender Pairings (Male Drinker-Female Cagemate or Female Drinker-Male Cagemate) relative to Drinkers in Same-Gender Pairings (Male Drinker-Male Cagemate or Female Drinker-Female Cagemate). In contrast, when the Cagemate was not provided with access to ethanol, the opposite effects were observed. These novel PCD procedures reveal that the gender of the Cagemate and the Cagemate's access to ethanol influenced ethanol drinking in proximal-housed CD-1 Drinker mice.

Voluntary wheel running: a review and novel interpretation

Voluntary wheel running by animals is an activity that has been observed and recorded in great detail for almost a century. This review shows that it is performed, often with startling intensity and coordination, by a wide variety of wild, laboratory and domestic species with diverse evolutionary histories. However, despite the plethora of published studies on wheel running, there is considerable disagreement between many findings, thus leading to a lack of consensus on explanations of the causality and function. In the initial part of this review, I discuss the internal and external factors that may be involved in the causality of this behaviour, with an emphasis on disparities in both the factual and theoretical development of the subject. I then address the various proposed functions of wheel running, again highlighting evidence to the contrary. This leads to the conclusion that any single theory on the basis of wheel running is likely to be simplistic with little generality. I then present a novel, behaviour-based interpretation in which it is argued that wheel running has no directly analogous naturally occurring behaviour, it is (sometimes) performed for its own sake per se rather than as a redirected or substitute activity, and studies on motivation show that wheel running is self-reinforcing and perceived by animals as 'important'. This review proposes that wheel running may be an artefact of captive environments or of the running-wheel itself, possibly resulting from feedback dysfunction. I also discuss the ubiquity and intensity of its performance, along with its great plasticity and maladaptiveness, all indicating that if it is an artefact, it is nevertheless one of great interest to behavioural science. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Efficiency and persistence of licking in rats

Thirsty rats tested in 60-min sessions licked an empty spout for access to a water spout. We raised the behavioral price of the water lick by requiring more licks at the empty spout per lick at the water spout. At relatively high prices the rats made relatively few water licks but licked more efficiently, getting more water per lick. Controls showed that the rise in efficiency with price was not attributable to two variables previously confounded with price: the total number of water licks, and the temporal pattern of access. At a higher price the rats also licked more persistently, making more extra water licks before the shutter could occlude the spout. However, yoked controls showed that the greater persistence resulted not from price, but from the relatively stringent pattern of access that accompanied the higher price. Extra water licks diminished as the session progressed, apparently from satiety, not fatigue. The results have implications for behavioral ecology, behavioral economics, motivation, and the methodology of reward.

Effects of rate and distance of procurement wheel-running on saccharin-and-sucrose solution drinking by non-deprived rats

Four non-deprived rats received daily sessions of 20 min access to a saccharin-and-sucrose solution following various prior activities, in an attempt to disentangle the normally confounded roles of time spent, amount and rate of procurement responding in causing an increase in consumption once access is gained. After the normal rate of running (approx 35 m/min) was established, six conditions were run in random order, involving waiting zero and 2.5 min in an immobilised running-wheel, and running, with the wheel rotated by a motor, in four conditions formed by combining two speeds (12 and 30 m/min) with two distances (12 and 30 m), prior to access to the solution. Drinking increased with the speed of prior running, and to a lesser extent with the distance run, but was not related systematically to the time spent running. It is suggested that information from the animal's own behavior in gaining access to a commodity, particularly the rate of energy expenditure, may influence its utilisation of the commodity by affecting the rate of subsequent consummatory responding.