Little and often: ingestive behavior patterns following hippocampal lesions in rats

Lesions of both dorsal and ventral hippocampus were produced by multiple infusions of the excitotoxin AMPA. Meal patterns recorded before and after lesioning showed no change in total food intake, but a striking behavioral syndrome in which the lesioned rats took smaller meals 2-3 times as frequently and showed a similar change in drinking. In addition, lesioned rats alternated more frequently between feeding and drinking during a single bout of ingestive behavior. There were no group differences in the satiety sequence that followed a meal. In an open field test, lesioned rats showed enhanced locomotion in the periphery and reduced rearing. An olfactory habituation-dishabituation task showed that the lesioned rats investigated olfactory stimuli less but dishabituation to a changed stimulus was normal. The data are discussed in terms of changes in behavioral switching or a possible interoceptive agnosia following hippocampal damage.