Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging
Eating behavior depends on associations between the sensory and energetic properties of foods. Healthful balance of these factors is a challenge for industrialized societies that have an abundance of food, food choices and food-related cues. Here, we were interested in whether appetitive conditionin...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00242/full |
| _version_ | 1818518671121711104 |
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| author | Mazen R. Harb Nuno eSousa Josef eZihl Osborne F Almeida |
| author_facet | Mazen R. Harb Nuno eSousa Josef eZihl Osborne F Almeida |
| author_sort | Mazen R. Harb |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Eating behavior depends on associations between the sensory and energetic properties of foods. Healthful balance of these factors is a challenge for industrialized societies that have an abundance of food, food choices and food-related cues. Here, we were interested in whether appetitive conditioning changes as a function of age. Operant and pavlovian conditioning experiments (rewarding stimulus was a palatable food) in male mice (aged 3, 6 and 15 months) showed that implicit (non-declarative) memory remains intact during aging. Two other essential components of eating behavior, motivation and hedonic preference for rewarding foods, were also found not to be altered in aging mice. Specifically, hedonic responding by satiated mice to isocaloric foods of differing sensory properties (sucrose, milk) was similar in all age groups; importantly, however, this paradigm disclosed that older animals adjust their energy intake according to energetic need. Based on the assumption that the mechanisms that control feeding are conserved across species, it would appear that overeating and obesity in humans reflects a mismatch between ancient physiological mechanisms and today’s cue-laden environment. The implication of the present results showing that aging does not impair the ability to learn stimulus-food associations is that the risk of overeating in response to food cues is maintained through to old age. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T01:13:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-208aad66b9824627b1e30bbe87c47194 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1663-4365 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T01:13:26Z |
| publishDate | 2014-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-208aad66b9824627b1e30bbe87c471942022-12-22T01:25:58ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience1663-43652014-09-01610.3389/fnagi.2014.00242102267Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse agingMazen R. Harb0Nuno eSousa1Josef eZihl2Osborne F Almeida3University of MinhoUniversity of MinhoUniversity of MinhoUniversity of MinhoEating behavior depends on associations between the sensory and energetic properties of foods. Healthful balance of these factors is a challenge for industrialized societies that have an abundance of food, food choices and food-related cues. Here, we were interested in whether appetitive conditioning changes as a function of age. Operant and pavlovian conditioning experiments (rewarding stimulus was a palatable food) in male mice (aged 3, 6 and 15 months) showed that implicit (non-declarative) memory remains intact during aging. Two other essential components of eating behavior, motivation and hedonic preference for rewarding foods, were also found not to be altered in aging mice. Specifically, hedonic responding by satiated mice to isocaloric foods of differing sensory properties (sucrose, milk) was similar in all age groups; importantly, however, this paradigm disclosed that older animals adjust their energy intake according to energetic need. Based on the assumption that the mechanisms that control feeding are conserved across species, it would appear that overeating and obesity in humans reflects a mismatch between ancient physiological mechanisms and today’s cue-laden environment. The implication of the present results showing that aging does not impair the ability to learn stimulus-food associations is that the risk of overeating in response to food cues is maintained through to old age.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00242/fullAgingMotivationassociative learningconditioningfood rewardhedonic preference |
| spellingShingle | Mazen R. Harb Nuno eSousa Josef eZihl Osborne F Almeida Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience Aging Motivation associative learning conditioning food reward hedonic preference |
| title | Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging |
| title_full | Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging |
| title_fullStr | Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging |
| title_short | Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging |
| title_sort | reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging |
| topic | Aging Motivation associative learning conditioning food reward hedonic preference |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00242/full |
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