Studying ingestive behavior with Gerry Smith

During the approximately 15 years that Gerry and I collaborated on studying the ingestive behavior of the rat, we showed (1) using a microstructural analysis of the licking behavior of that animal, that the volume ingested during 30-min intake tests was controlled by an interaction between oropharyngeal and postingestional stimulation; (2) that the inhibiting effect of dopamine blockade on intake acts through sensory rather than motor systems; (3) that CCK-8 acts on licking behavior the same way that gastric filling does. We also discovered (4) that learning altered the effectiveness of oropharyngeal stimulation to control the intake of concentrated carbohydrate and sodium chloride solutions; and (5) that the stomach is remarkably insensitive to the volume of its contents.