Taste reactivity in satiated, ready to eat and starved rats
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 20:10authored byD A Booth
While directly experiencing an aversive taste, satiated rats are more finicky than starved rats or freely fed, spontaneously ready-to-eat rats. On the other hand, hungry rats become more persistent in orienting to the source of an attractive taste as the period for which they have been without food is increased to most of a day, although they do not necessarily become harder to shift from that taste during its actual presentation. Thus hypotheses about taste reactivity of freely fed and deprived rats, whether intended to fit or to contradict common sense impressions, must not generalize without reference to (1) the rat's stage in its meal pattern ad lib, (2) the valence of reactions to the taste stimulus, and (3) whether the taste is on the tongue or is only expected from a source. Furthermore, reactions to taste change from one minute to the next during access to food. If a food intake test in the rat is extended to 1 hr or more, effects of prior food deprivation on intake modulation by taste can arise from the loss of the satiating power of food after starvation as much as from any taste control of feeding behavior itself.