Se. Swithers, EFFECTS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL-STATE ON ORAL HABITUATION IN DEVELOPING RATS- CELLULAR AND EXTRACELLULAR DEHYDRATION, Developmental psychobiology, 28(3), 1995, pp. 131-145
Hydrational state has been demonstrated to influence intake of various
solutions in young rat pups. For instance, both cellular and extracel
lular dehydration produce an enhancement of intake in pups tested at 6
days of age, However, the behavioral mechanisms that result in increa
sed intake following manipulations of hydrational state have been less
extensively studied. The impact of hydrational state on behavioral re
sponsiveness in young rat pups was examined by assessing the pattern o
f responding to a series of repeated oral infusions of diet. Pups were
tested at 6, 12, or 18 days of age following either acute cellular de
hydration produced by injection of 1 M NaCl or acute extracellular deh
ydration produced by injection of 10% polyethylene glycol (PEG). Oral
responsiveness to a series of 30 brief infusions of one of four taste
solutions (water, 10% sucrose, 0.135 M NaCl, or 1 M NaCl) was measured
. Each infusion lasted 3 s and there was 1 min between infusions. The
pattern of oral responding to solutions was affected by the developmen
tal age of the pup, the hydrational state of the pup, and the solution
offered, with the largest effects of dehydration observed in the youn
gest animals. In all conditions except one, pups habituated to repeate
d infusions. The exception was the failure of extracellularly dehydrat
ed 6-day-old pups to display habituation to oral infusions of sucrose.
These results suggest that, although intake is enhanced by both cellu
lar and extracellular dehydration in very young pups, the behavioral c
hanges responsible for the enhancement of intake after cellular dehydr
ation are different from the behavioral changes resulting from extrace
llular dehydration. This dissociation of behavioral effects of dehydra
tion in young pups demonstrates that intake measures alone may obscure
subtle differences in behavior and argues for the utility of dissecti
on of behavioral components in understanding the neural and physiologi
cal control of behavior. (C) 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.