A Framework for Developing Translationally Relevant Animal Models of Stress-Induced Changes in Eating Behavior

Stress often affects eating behaviors, leading to increased eating in some individuals and decreased eating in others. Identifying physiological and psychological factors that determine the direction of eating responses to stress has been a major goal of epidemiological and clinical studies. However, challenges of standardizing the stress exposure in humans hinder efforts to uncover the underlying mechanisms. The issue of what determines the direction of stress-induced feeding responses has not been directly addressed in animal models, but assays that combine stress with a feeding-related task are commonly used as readouts of other behaviors, such as anxiety. Sex, estrous cyclicity, circadian cyclicity, caloric restriction, palatable diets, elevated body weight, and properties of the stressors similarly influence feeding behavior in humans and rodent models. Yet, most rodent studies do not use conditions that are most relevant for studying feeding behavior in humans. This review proposes a conceptual framework for incorporating these influences to develop reproducible and translationally relevant assays to study effects of stress on food intake. Such paradigms have the potential to uncover links between emotional eating and obesity as well as to the etiology of eating disorders.