Daily meal anticipation: interaction of circadian and interval timing

Both short-interval and circadian timing systems support anticipatory response accelerations prior to food reinforcement. In the first case, the behavior pattern is determined by a scalar timing process with an arbitrary-reset property. In contrast, under daily cycles of food-availability, behavior reflects a self-sustaining oscillation. With rats as subjects, the concurrent operation of timing of both kinds was studied by addition of premeal auditory cues on the circadian baseline, in the absence of a day-night illumination cycle. Cues within both minute and hour ranges served to lower the level of premeal anticipatory responding, although exponential accelerations were similar to the uncued case. Cues within the minutes range yielded interval-timing functions that reflected approximate superposition. Cues within the hours range suppressed respondings at their outset, in proportion to cue duration. When one of the shorter cues was suddenly lengthened, short-interval accelerations appeared at inappropriate circadian phases. When a premeal cue was extended through mealtime, anticipation rates increased markedly, suggesting that cue termination at the start of mealtime is a potent anchor for premeal anticipation regardless of cue duration. By use of meal-omission probes without external cues, peak rates were located after the onset of expected mealtime, often near its termination. The results suggest interactions between the scalar interval timer and the circadian anticipation timer, as modulated by the circadian free-run timer.