A biphasic reduction in a measure of palatability following sucrose consumption in mice

Consumption of foods results in a transient reduction in hedonic value that influences the extent and nature of feeding behavior. The time course of this effect, however, is poorly specified. In an initial experiment, using an analysis of the microstructure of licking in mice we found that consumption of sucrose led to a rapid reduction in lick cluster size, a measure of palatability, which recovered after 10 min, but reemerged 60min after initial consumption. We then replicated the finding that lick cluster size is reduced after 60min, but not 10min, under conditions in which a number of potential behavioural confounds were removed. In Experiment 2 the effect was replicated using a between-subjects design that ruled out the possibility that the effect was a specific consequence of the within-subjects procedures used in the first experiment, in which mice may have come to expect sucrose at different time points within the feeding session. While Experiments 1 and 2 confounded the time between periods of access to sucrose with time since the start of the feeding session, this confound was removed in Experiment 3, and, similar to the previous experiments, it was found that a second reduction in palatability occurred after 60min. Therefore, the effect was dependent only on the time since the previous exposure to sucrose, demonstrating that sucrose consumption initiates a biphasic reduction in palatability. The reduction in lick cluster size after 60min was not typically accompanied by a reduction in consumption suggesting that the more slowly developing reduction in the palatability measure was not simply a consequence of post-ingestive satiety. The cause of the biphasic change is not yet clear, and may reflect independent processes or the consequence of a single process that initiates multiple changes in palatability over time.