Influence of palatability on motivation to operate for caloric and non-caloric food in non food-deprived and food-deprived rats

Palatability is the hedonic food component that is considered to override the homeostatic mechanisms that control food intake, and we compared how much effort non food-deprived and food-deprived rats were willing to spend in order to earn a palatable caloric (sucrose) or non-caloric (saccharin) snack. We first studied the dopaminergic response, in terms of dopamine levels and dopamine and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein Mr 32,000 (DARPP-32) phosphorylation pattern, to two consecutive palatable caloric or non-caloric snacks in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcS) of non food-deprived and fasted rats. We report that non food-deprived rats developed rapid habituation in the NAcS dopaminergic response to the second consumption of both caloric and non-caloric palatable food, while food-deprived rats developed rapid habituation only to saccharin. Next, we show that in self-administration experiments, non food-deprived rats spent a similar effort when operating for sucrose or saccharin. However, the same rats showed an increased response specifically for sucrose after 18-h fasting. After pre-feeding devaluation, rats reduced their response to sucrose but not for saccharin. These results strengthen the hypothesis that food intake is mainly controlled by palatability in non food-deprived rats and by caloric content in food-deprived rats. Moreover, they show that rapid habituation development was associated with a similar, basal working activity aimed at ingesting both caloric and non-caloric food, as observed in non food-deprived rats consuming sucrose or saccharin and in fasted rats consuming saccharin. Conversely, lack of habituation, as present in fasted rats consuming a caloric food, was associated with extra energy expenditure.