Conditioned overconsumption is dependent on reinforcer type in lean, but not obese, mice.

Published: 22 April 2024| Version 1 | DOI: 10.17632/5ygkhpszm6.1
Contributors:
Darielle Lewis-Sanders, Sebastien Bullich, Elisa Mizrachi Mizrachi, Sarah Stern

Description

Associative learning can drive many different types of behaviors, including food consumption. Previous studies have shown that cues paired with food delivery while mice are hungry will lead increased consumption in the presence of those cues at later times. We previously showed that overconsumption can be driven in male mice by contextual cues, using chow pellets. Here we extended our findings by examining other parameters that may influence the outcome of context-conditioned overconsumption training. We found that the task worked equally well in males and females, and that palatable substances such as high-fat diet and Ensure chocolate milkshake supported learning and induced overconsumption. Surprisingly, mice did not overconsume when sucrose was used as the reinforcer during training, suggesting that nutritional content is a critical factor. Interestingly, we also observed that diet-induced obese mice did not learn the task. Overall, we find that context-conditioned overconsumption can be studied in lean males and female mice, and with multiple reinforcer types.

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Steps to reproduce

See methods of the paper (link attached)

Institutions

Max Planck Florida Institute

Categories

Mouse, Reinforcement, Feeding Behavior, High-Fat Diet

Funding

National Institutes of Health

R00DA04749

One Mind Foundation Rising Star Award

Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Licence