Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-956mj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-14T20:28:25.281Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Homeostasis and drinking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

F. M. Toates
F. M. Toates
Affiliation:
Biology Department, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Drinking and thirst-motivated behaviour have traditionally been explained in terms of the rather simple concept of homeostasis. A homeostatic mechanism readily accounts for responses to acute changes in body-fluid levels. However, there are other factors regulating intake, for example, cues associated with eating, which interact with the time elapsed since last drinking and the availability of water. Future dehydration is avoided by behavioural hysteresis; a sudden reduction in fluid needs is not matched by an equivalent reduction in fluid intake. Another factor not explicable by traditional homeostasis is that, in general, drinking cannot be suppressed by water infusion. Nor are there rigid target values for body-fluid levels independent of the cost of obtaining water; when water is hard to get, a relatively low body fluid level is maintained, thus minimizing loss. On the basis of the results conflicting with traditional homeostatic theory, this paper tentatively suggests certain modifications toward a more realistic model of fluid ingestion.

Keywords

drinkinghomeostasismotivationnegative feedbackthirst
Type
Target Article
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 1979 , pp. 95 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Andersson, B. Osmoreceptors versus sodium receptors. In: Epstein, A. N., Kissi-leff, H. R., and Stellar, E., (eds.), The Neuropsychology of Thirst: New Findings and Advances in Concepts. Pp. 113–16. V. H. Winston, Washington, D.C., 1973Google Scholar
Blass, E. M. The physiological, neurological and behavioural bases of thirst. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. 22: 1–47. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Neb., 1974.Google Scholar
Blass, E. M., and Hall, W. G.Behavioural and physiological bases of drinking inhibition in water deprived rats. Nature. 249: 485–86. 1974.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drinking termination: Interaction among hydrational, orogastric and behavioural controls in rats. Psychological Review. 83:356–74. 1976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boiee, R.Some behavioural tests of domestication in Norway rats. Behaviour. 42:198–231. 1972.Google Scholar
Bolles, R. C.The interaction of hunger and thirst in the rat. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 54: 580–84. 1961.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Booth, D. A.Conditioned satiety and behavioural caloric compensation following intragastric glucose loads in the rat. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 81: 457–71. 1972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prediction of feeding behaviour from energy flows in the rat. In: Booth, D. A., (ed.), Hunger Models: Computable Theory of Feeding Control. Pp. 227–78. Academic Press, London. 1978.Google Scholar
Booth, D. A., and Toates, F. M.A physiological control theory of food intake in the rat: Mark 1. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society. 3: 442–44. 1974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannon, W. B., The Wisdom of the Body. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., London, 1947.Google Scholar
Chew, R. M., Water metabolism of mammals. In: Mayer, W. V., and Van Gelder, R. G., Physiological Mammalogy, vol. II. Pp. 43–178. Academic Press, London and New York. 1965.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cizek, L. J., Relationship between food and water ingestion in the rabbit. American Journal of Physiology. 197: 342–46. 1961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, G.Body weight loss as a measure of motivation in hunger and thirst. Annals of the New York Academy of Science. 157: 594–609. 1969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, G., Hirsch, E., and Kanarek, R. The operant revisited. In: Honig, W. K., and Staddon, J. E. R., (eds.), Handbook of Operant Behaviour. Pp. 28–52. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1977.Google Scholar
Davis, J. D., and Levine, M. W.A model for the control of ingestion. Psychological Review. 84: 379–412. 1977.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dicker, J. E., and Nunn, J.The role of anti-diuretic hormone during water deprivation in rats. Journal of Physiology (Lond.). 136: 235–48. 1957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domjan, N., The nature of the thirst stimulus: a factor in conditioned taste-aversion behaviour. Physiology and Behaviour. 14: 809–13. 1975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, A. N., The neuroendocrinology of thirst and sodium appetite. In: Ga-nong, W. F., and Martini, L., (eds.), Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, vol. 5. Pp. 101–34. Raven Press, New York, 1978.Google Scholar
Falk, J. L., Production of polydipsia in normal rats by an intermittent food schedule. Science. 133: 195–96. 1961.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
The origin and functions of adjunctive behaviour. Animal Learning and Behaviour. 5:325–35. 1977.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzsimons, J. T., Drinking by nephrectomized rats injected with various substances. Journal of Physiology. 155:563–79. 1961.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
The physiology of thirst: A review of the extraneural aspects of the mechanisms of drinking. In: Stellar, E., and Sprague, J. M., (eds.), Progress in Physiological Psychology. Pp. 119–201. Academic Press. New York, 1971. Thirst. Physiological Reviews. 52:468–561. 1972.Google Scholar
Fitzsimons, J. T., and LeMagnen, J.Eating as a regulatory control of drinking in the rat. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 67: 273–83. 1969.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fitzsimons, J. T., and Oatley, K.Additivity of stimuli for drinking in rats. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 66: 450–55. 1968.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garcia, J., Kimmeldorf, D. J., and Koelling, R. A.Conditioned aversion to saccharine resulting from exposure to gamma radiation. Science. 122: 157–58. 1955.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ghent, L.Some effects of deprivation on eating and drinking behaviour. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 50: 172–76. 1957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilman, A.The relation between blood osmotic pressure, fluid distribution and voluntary water intake. American Journal of Physiology. 120: 323–28. 1937.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatton, G. I., and Bennett, C. T., Satiation of thirst and termination of drinking: Roles of plasma osmolality and absorption. Physiology and Behaviour. 5: 479–87. 1970.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holman, G.Intragastric reinforcement effect. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 69: 432–41. 1969.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Houston, A. “ldquo;Models of animal motivation” D. Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1977.Google Scholar
Hsiao, S.Reciprocal and additive effects of hyperoncotic and hypertonic treatments on feeding and drinking rats. Psychonomic Science. 19: 303–304. 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsiao, S., and Lloyd, M. A.Do rats drink water in excess of apparent need when they are given food? Psychonomic Science. 15: 155–56. 1969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kissileff, H. R. Nonhomeostatic controls of drinking. In: Epstein, A. N., Kissi-leff, H. R., and Stellar, E., (eds.), The Neuropsychology of Thirst: New Findings and Advances in Concepts. Pp. 163–98. V.H. Winston, Washington, D.C., 1973.Google Scholar
Kutscher, C. L., Species differences in the interaction of feeding and drinking. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 157: 539–52. 1969.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Interaction of food and water deprivation on drinking: Effect of body water losses and characteristics of solution offered. Physiology and Behaviour. 9:753–58. 1972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutscher, C. L., Stillman, R. D., and Weiss, I. P.Food deprivation polydipsia in gerbils (Meriones Unguiculatus). Physiology and Behaviour. 3:667–71. 1968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lea, S. E. G., The psychology and economics of demand. Psychological Bulletin. 85: 441–66. 1978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeMagnen, J.Sur le mécanisme d'établissement des appetits caloriques. Comptes Rendus-Académie Des Sciences. 240: 2436–38. 1955.Google Scholar
Logan, F. A., The free behaviour situation. Levine, D. (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation Pp. 99–134. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Neb., 1964.Google Scholar
McFarland, D. J.Mechanisms of behavioural inhibition. Animal Behaviour. 17: 238–42. 1969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Recent developments in the study of feeding and drinking in animals. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 14:229–37. 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feedback Mechanisms in Animal Behaviour. Academic Press, London, 1971.Google Scholar
McKinley, M. J., Denton, D. A., and Weisinger, R. S.Sensors for antidiuresis and thirst-osmoreceptors or CSF sodium detectors? Brain Research. 141:89–103. 1978.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Milgram, N. W., Krames, L., and Thompson, R.Influence of drinking history on food deprived drinking in the rat. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 87:126–33. 1974.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, N. E., Sampliner, R. I., and Woodrow, P.Thirst reducing effects of water by stomach fistula versus water by mouth, measured by both a consummatory and an instrumental response. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 50: 1–5. 1957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, S. D., Regulation of water intake by rats deprived of food. Physiology and Behaviour. 3: 75–81. 1968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, S. D., Mackay, C., Hurlbrink, E., Wier, J. K., Nick, M. S., and Millar, F. K.The water exchange and polyuria of rats deprived of food. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology. 52: 51–67. 1967.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolaidis, S., and Rowland, N. Systemic versus oral and gastrointestinal metering of fluid intake. In: Peters, G., Fitzsimons, J. T., and Peters-Haefeli, L., (eds.), Control Mechanisms of Drinking. Pp. 14–21. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novin, D., and Vander Weele, D. A., Visceral involvement in feeding: There is more to regulation than the hypothalamus. Progress in Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology. 7: 194–241. 1977.Google Scholar
Oatley, K.A control model of the physiological basis of thirst. Medical and Biological Engineering. 5: 225–37. 1967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dissociation of the circadian drinking pattern from eating. Nature. 229:494–96. 1971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simulation and theory of thirst. In: Epstein, A. N., Kissileff, H. R., and Stellar, E., (eds.), The Neuropsychology of Thirst: New Findings and Advances in Concepts. Pp. 199–223. V. H. Winston, Washington, D.C., 1973.Google Scholar
Oatley, K., and Toates, F. M.The passage of food through the gut of rats and its uptake of fluid. Psychonomic Science. 16:225–26. 1969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeve, E. B., and Kulhanek, L. Regulation of body water content: A preliminary analysis, In Reeve, E. B., and Guyton, A. C., (eds.), Physical Bases of Circulatory Transport: Regulation and Exchange. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1967.Google Scholar
Rolls, B. J., Wood, R. J., and Stevens, R. M.Palatability and body-fluid homeo-stasis. Physiology and Behaviour, 20: 15–19. 1978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowland, N.Regulatory drinking: Do the physiological substrates have an ecological niche? Biobehavioural Reviews. 1: 261–72. 1977.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowland, N., and Flamm, C.Quinine drinking: More regulatory puzzles. Physiology and Behaviour. 18: 1165–70. 1977.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rowland, N., and Nicolaidis, S.Metering of fluid intake and determinants of ad libitum drinking in rats. American Journal of Physiology. 231: 1–8. 1976.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rozin, P., and Kalat, J., Specific hungers and poison avoidance as adaptive specializations of learning. Psychological Review. 78: 459–86. 1971.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Satinoff, E., and Henderson, R. Thermoregulatory behaviour. In: Honig, W. K., and Staddon, J. E. R., (eds.), Handbook of Operant Behaviour. Pp. 153–73. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1977.Google Scholar
Sibly, R.How incentive and deficit determine feeding tendency. Animal Behaviour. 23: 437–46. 1975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strieker, E. M. Thirst, sodium appetite, and complementary physiological contributions to the regulation of intravascular fluid volume. In: Epstein, A. N., Kissileff, H. R., and Stellar, E., (eds.), The Neuropsychology of Thirst: New Findings and Advances in Concepts. Pp. 73–98. V. H. Winston, Washington, D.C., 1973.Google Scholar
Stunkard, A.Satiety is a conditioned reflex. Psychosomatic Medicine. 37: 383–87. 1975.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Toates, F. M. Computer simulation and the homestatic control of behaviour. In: McFarland, D. J., (ed.), Motivational Control Systems Analysis. Pp. 407–26. Academic Press, London, 1974.Google Scholar
Control Theory in Biology and Experimental Psychology. Hutchinson Educational Ltd., London, 1975.Google Scholar
A physiological control theory of the hunger-thirst interaction. In: Booth, D. A., (ed.), Hunger Models: Computable Theory of Feeding Control. Pp. 347–73. Academic Press, London, 1978.Google Scholar
Water and energy in the interaction of thirst and hunger. In: Brown, K., and Cooper, S., (eds.), Chemical Influence on Behaviour. Academic Press, London, In press, 1979.Google Scholar
Toates, F. M., and Oatley, K.Computer simulation of thirst and water balance. Medical and Biological Engineering. 8:71–87. 1970.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, I. P. “Nutritional and non-nutritional factors underlying food-deprivation polydipsia in the gerbil (Meriones Unguiculatus).” Ph.D. thesis, Syracuse University, 1969.Google Scholar
Wright, J. W.Effect of hunger on the drinking behaviour of rodents adapted for mesic and xeric environments. Animal Behaviour. 24: 300–304. 1976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar