Abstract
Are there age-related decrements in the re-entrainment of food intake of rats following an inversion of the light-dark cycle? An experiment using 17 male rats was carried out according to a 2 by 2 by 7 design, with repeated measures on the last two factors, representing age of rat (220 and 785 days), time of day (0600-1800 h vs. 1800-0600 h), and daysets (0-6). The primary dependent variable was grams of food eaten during each 12-h period. The results indicate that prior to the light reversal the older rats ate more during the light phase of the light-dark cycle than the younger rats, but did not differ from them during the dark phase; and that the older rats entrained their food intake at a slower absolute rate than the younger rats, but at an equal relative rate. These results suggest that senescent rats are as adaptable to changes in their environment as mature rats.
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This research was supported by 821 funds of the U.S. Veterans Administration (Medical Research Information System Number 0150). The treatment of animals was in accordance with the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Thanks to Vern Mcintosh for assistance in the collection of data, to Harold Mack for assistance in the analysis of the data which was performed on the University of Missouri Computer Network, and to Robert Goldstein for his helpful critique of the manuscript.
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Jakubczak, L.F. Re-entrainment of food intake of mature and old rats to the light-dark cycle. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 6, 491–493 (1975). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337546
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337546