The nature and function of interoceptive signals to feed: Toward integration of physiological and learning perspectives.

Abstract

The idea that different states of energy need give rise to distinct interoceptive sensations has been basic to many accounts of the physiological and the learned controls of feeding. Yet, a number of difficulties have complicated attempts to provide direct evidence for this view. The present article describes a research strategy that confirms that food deprivation states produce salient interoceptive stimuli in rats. The implications of this research for the physiological origins of energy state signals, the brain structures involved with processing energy state information, and the manner in which signals of energy need influence feeding were considered. The possibility that food deprivation cues influence feeding by modulating the activation of associations involving external events and their postingestive aftereffects was discussed with reference to earlier associative accounts of the function of hunger signals.

A matching law analysis of the effect of amphetamine on responding reinforced by the opportunity to run

“…Although it is important to note that in the context of the present study, there was no explicit incentive stimulus (i.e., food item) that would elicit running as a preparatory behavior. However, it may be the case that interoceptive stimulation associated with food deprivation may serve this function (Davidson, 1993).…”

The learned function of food-deprivation cues: A role for conditioned modulation

“…Shock occurred only when fooddeprivation cues preceded and overlapped with apparatus cues (i.e., B~A+). Rats might encounter a parallel set of relations when they try to solve the problem of when to feed (Davidson, 1993;Davidson et aI., 1992). That is, animals may learn that exteroceptive food cues-the sight, texture, smell of food, or cues related to food-are accompanied by delivery of the US with positive postingestive consequences when hunger cues and food cues occur together (viz, when B~A+ occurs).…”

“…A second, similar idea is that hunger cues combine with dietary cues (e.g., tastes) to form a configural stimulus that is directly associated with a postingestive US (Gibson & Booth, 1989). A third idea is that hunger stimuli also might belong to a class ofevents known as conditioned modulatory stimuli (Davidson, 1993). Members ofthis class, unlike simple excitors or configural cues, do not appear to influence behavior solely on the basis ofa direct association with a US or a response; instead, they are thought to control behavior by modulating the strength of the association between a conditional stimulus (CS) and its US.…”

“…Psychologists have long entertained the idea that hunger gives rise to distinct interoceptive stimuli (Davidson, 1987(Davidson, , 1993Friedman, 1990;Hull, 1931;Revusky & Garcia, 1970;Smith & Guthrie, 1921). According to several early accounts, these interoceptive stimuli enter into the control of behavior by becoming simple direct associates of unconditional stimuli (USs) or of responses that are instrumental to obtaining food USs (Estes, 1958;Hull, 1931;Konorski, 1967;Smith & Guthrie, 1921).…”

Individual differences in food-cue reactivity

“…Most relevant to the current dIscussion IS the fact that these operatIOns mIght also affect the extent to whIch environmental stimuli are able to motivate behavIOur. For example, hke Davidson's (1993) modulator, these operatIons mIght encourage or dlscourage responses to envIronmental shmuli which predIct a reward assocIated with the particular EO.…”