A "pre-satiety sequence" in rats drinking sucrose solutions

Food-deprived rats were given intermittent access or, in a replication, con tinuous access to a 20% sucrose solution. Both drinking and nondrinking beh aviors were recorded. During the ensuing drinking bout, latency of lapping after snout apposition, and duration of lapping bouts, did not change. Appr oaches to the sipper tube usually eventuated in lapping, though aborted app roaches increased in frequency late in the session. Drinking was interrupte d by nondrinking behaviors which appeared in a characteristic rostro-caudal sequence: partial head withdrawal from the drinking aperture, then full he ad withdrawal, then movements of the front paws, then movement of the hind paws with full-body locomotion. All these behavioral changes occurred befor e there was any appreciable reduction in rate of lapping. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.