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Self-Starvation in the Rat: Running versus Eating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Robert A. Boakes
Robert A. Boakes*
Affiliation:
University of Sydney, Australia
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Robert A. Boakes, School of Psychology (A18), University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Phone: 612 - 9351 3347. FAX: 612 - 9351 2603. E-mail: bobb@psych.usyd.edu.au
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Abstract

Rats given the combination of unrestricted access to an activity wheel and restricted access to food can lose weight to the extent that they will die unless removed from these conditions. Although this has been known for forty years, why this happens has remained unclear. The phenomenon is paradoxical in that one might expect such rats to eat more as their weight decreases, but in fact they eat less than resting controls. This lecture first examines some of the factors than influence whether self-starvation will occur, such as age, time of food access, type of food and ambient temperature. It then compares competing explanations such as circadian adaptation, thermo-regulation and food aversion learning. As so often in psychology, it turns out that self-starvation results from a combination of many separate factors. The general implications of this research are examined, including whether it provides a useful animal model for human anorexia nervosa.

Las ratas sometidas simultáneamente a restricción de comida y acceso a una rueda de actividad pierden peso hasta el extremo de morir si no son retiradas a tiempo de estas condiciones. Aunque este hecho es conocido desde hace cuarenta años, la razón por la cual esto sucede permanece sin resolver. Lo paradójico de este fenómeno reside en que, aunque sería esperable que las ratas comiesen más a medida que su peso disminuye, en realidad estos animales comen menos que sus controles sedentarios. En esta conferencia se examina, en primer lugar, algunos factores que influyen en el desarrollo de la auto-inanición como son la edad, el tiempo de acceso a la comida, el tipo de comida y la temperatura ambiental. A continuación se comparan algunas explicaciones tales como la adaptación del ritmo circadiano, la termorregulación y la aversión adquirida a la comida. Tal como ocurre con frecuencia en psicología, la auto-inanición es el resultado de diferentes factores. Finalmente, se examinarán algunas implicaciones más generales de esta investigación, incluida su posible utilidad como modelo animal para el estudio de la anorexia nerviosa en humanos.

Keywords

self-starvationratsanorexia nervosaauto-inaniciónratasanorexia nerviosa
Type
Articles
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , November 2007 , pp. 251 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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