Motivation to run measured by progressive ratio tests: Failure to support the addiction hypothesis for rats

When laboratory rats are given repeated access to an activity wheel, the amount that they run steadily increases. This suggests an analogy with drug dependency in animals and humans, in that this is marked by both increasing intakes of the drug and increasing motivation to obtain the drug (craving). This analogy was examined by measuring motivation to obtain an opportunity to run using a progressive ratio (PR) schedule, whereby the number of lever presses required to release a brake on an activity wheel was increased progressively. Each of two experiments included two groups of rats that differed in running experience. In Experiment 1, both groups were given 17 wheel-running sessions before they were given the PR test, with sessions for the short group lasting only 30 min, while those for the long group lasted 4.5 hrs. In Experiment 2, both groups were given 3-hr wheel sessions, with the short group given only four such sessions and the medium groups given 12 such sessions prior to their PR test. In both experiments, the PR tests revealed that motivation to run was greater when the rats had not had an opportunity to run for at least 24 hrs prior to the test than when they had run the previous day. However, neither experiment produced evidence that motivation to run increased with the amount of previous running. Given only limited support for the analogy between running and drug addiction, steady increases in running may instead reflect circadian adaptation and/or increases in fitness.