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Regulatory changes following kainic acid-induced striatal lesions
Brain Research
|March 5, 1986
Summary
Kainic acid-lesioned (KAL) rats exhibit altered feeding and drinking behaviors during food deprivation. Hormonal influences are less critical than psychogenic factors in these regulatory deficits.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Physiology
Background:
- Kainic acid-induced lesions (KAL) of the striatum in rats cause significant body weight and regulatory deficits.
- KAL rats display unique drinking and feeding patterns, consuming more during food deprivation and eating more afterward compared to controls.
Purpose of the Study:
- To further investigate the regulatory peculiarities observed in KAL rats.
- To determine the role of hormonal influences versus psychogenic factors in these observed deficits.
Main Methods:
- Inducing food deprivation in KAL rats and control rats.
- Monitoring water intake, food intake, urination, and defecation.
- Administering the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin to assess its effect on regulatory behaviors.
Main Results:
- Food deprivation induced polydipsia and increased postdeprivational food intake in KAL rats, consistent with previous findings.
- Urination and defecation, indicators of emotionality, also increased under food deprivation in KAL rats.
- Vasopressin injection normalized postdeprivational hyperphagia in KAL rats, but other differences persisted.
Conclusions:
- Psychogenic factors appear to play a primary role in the regulatory peculiarities of KAL rats.
- Hormonal influences, specifically via vasopressin, do not fully account for the observed feeding and drinking deficits.