Acquisition of dietary self-selection in rats with normal and impaired oral sensation |
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Authors: | M G Miller J F Teates |
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Institution: | Division of Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, Washington, DC 20204 USA |
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Abstract: | To study the mechanisms of dietary self-selection, the dietary choice behavior of rats was observed for up to 5 weeks, beginning on the first day of exposure to two nutritionally different diets, a high-protein diet (44% protein) and a protein-free carbohydrate diet. In Experiment 1 normal rats selected equal amounts of the two selection diets at first and over a 7-day period gradually modified the choice ratio until a stable protein intake of 14.6% (SE,0.4) of total intake was reached. In Experiment 2 rats were subjected to partial trigeminal deafferentation, which impairs oral somatosensory input (touch, temperature, pain), before the two selection diets were introduced. The deafferented animals did not develop a stable selection pattern; their protein ratio varied over the entire possible range (0-44%) throughout the experiment. It is hypothesized that quantitative protein/carbohydrate selection involves an associative learning process in which somatosensory inputs from the feeding activity and/or from the properties of the food link dietary choice behavior to later metabolic consequences. |
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Keywords: | Acquisition Dietary self-selection Oral sensation Protein selection Trigeminal system |
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