Reinforcer-specificity of appetitive and consummatory behavior of rats after Pavlovian conditioning with food reinforcers.

Full Abstract

We examined the reinforcer-specificity of Pavlovian conditioning in the control of appetitive and consummatory behaviors in Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer, cue-potentiated eating, and devaluation procedures. Rats received pairings of one conditioned stimulus with sucrose and another conditioned stimulus with maltodextrin. In Experiment 1, rats were also trained to earn sucrose for one instrumental response and maltodextrin for another. In a transfer test, the Pavlovian cues enhanced the rate of instrumental responding more when the food reinforcer predicted by the instrumental response and the Pavlovian cue were consistent than when they were inconsistent, but both cues enhanced both responses. In Experiment 2, sated rats' consumption of each food was potentiated in the presence of a cue for that food, but not in the presence of a cue for the other food. In Experiment 3, one food was devalued by pairing it with lithium chloride, prior to testing food consumption and food-cup directed behaviors. The food cues selectively controlled food-cup related behaviors, regardless of the presence of the devalued or nondevalued foods in the food cup. Together, these results are consistent with the view that conditioned cues modulate appetitive and consummatory behaviors with increasing levels of specificity. The closer an action comes to ingestion, the more it is controlled by sensory properties conveyed by learned cues. These data are discussed in the context of allostatic regulation of food foraging and intake.

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Author information

Author/s: Galarce, Ezequiel M (EM); Crombag, Hans S (HS); Holland, Peter C (PC);

Affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States. galarce(-atsign-)jhu.edu

Grants: MH53667 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; MH65879 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; R01 MH065879-05 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Physiology & behavior (Physiol Behav), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-May; vol 91 (issue 1) : pp 95-105

Dates: Created 2007/04/27; Completed 2007/07/03; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 17346758, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals
Appetitive Behavior - physiology
Avoidance Learning - physiology
Conditioning, Classical - physiology
Conditioning, Operant - physiology
Consummatory Behavior - physiology
Cues
Eating - physiology

Food
Male
Polysaccharides
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Reinforcement (Psychology)
Satiation - physiology
Sucrose

Associated Chemicals: Polysaccharides (0) ; Sucrose (57-50-1) ; maltodextrin (9050-36-6)

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