Effects of acute food and/or water deprivation on muricide

The present experiment was designed to test certain predictions derived from models of interactions between muricide and appetitive behaviors proposed earlier by Russell and Singer [8,9]. One of the major features of the models centered on whether the two types of behavior are inevitably related. The general design of the present experiment involved testing for muricide either (a) after deprivation of food and/or water or (b) at times during the normal diurnal cycle when the two consummatory responses were at their minima and maxima. Deprivation and testing for muricide were limited to a single episode in order to eliminate confounding effects of repeated deprivations and of repeated exposures to prey. Periods of acute deprivation ranging from 5.5 to 22.0 hr did not induce significant quantitative changes in muricidal behavior. However, muricide and the appetitive behaviors did co-vary under conditions associated with the normal diurnal cycle. Comparing the present results with findings from experiments using repeated deprivation leads to the suggestion that covariation of appetitive and muricidal behaviors is not an innate characteristic, but rather is acquired through processes of learning. Present results further suggest that each of the two types of behavior has its own physiological substrate which can be modified independently, but also may be activated concomitantly by a common set of antecedent conditions.