An animal model of excessive eating: schedule-induced hyperphagia in food-satiated rats

Nineteen rats were maintained throughout the experiment on ad libitum wet mash and water and were trained to press a lever on fixed-interval or fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement with electrical brain stimulation. Fourteen rats ate at least 150% more mash during intermittent reinforcement sessions than during baseline, massed reinforcement control, and/or extinction sessions. In a 3-hr session, 11 of those 14 consumed more than 22 g of wet mash (13 g dry weight), the equivalent of nearly half an animal's daily food intake. In subsequent control sessions, the electrodes did not support stimulus-bound eating despite attempts to make stimulation parameters optimal. These results indicate that the eating was schedule induced or adjunctive, and suggest that the procedure may provide an animal model of excessive nonregulatory eating that contributes to obesity in humans.