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| Poster #283 Behavioral responses to caffeine are not the same as those we see to other bitters. |
| Emily Demieri1, Verenice Ascencio Gutierrez1, Tiago Mortellaro1, Ann-Marie Torregrossa1,2 1University at Buffalo (Department of Psychology), Buffalo, NY, United States 2University at Buffalo (Center for Ingestive Behavior), Buffalo, NY, United States |
Bitter stimuli are often associated with toxicity and can be aversive. However, we consume many bitter foods in our daily lives such as healthy vegetables or coffee. Our laboratory has shown that access to a non-bioactive (non-toxic) bitter, such as quinine, decreases both meal size and rate of feeding in rats. Over time, the animals increase acceptance of the diet and rate feeding increases to near baseline. In the current experiment, we explored the behavioral response of rats to a bioactive bitter diet, caffeine. Male long Evans rats were given either a non-bitter control diet or a diet containing 0.03% caffeine ad libitum. Animals on the caffeine diet decreased 24-hour food consumption and meal number (p’s<0.05) compared to controls. Animals on a caffeine diet also decreased rate of feeding upon first presentation but increased above baseline feeding rate overtime (p=0.054). They also increased meal size over time (p=0.008), the increases in rate and meal size are contrast to our work with other bitter diets. We also saw changes in the animal’s drinking behavior. Caffeine treated animals drank more water and had more drinking bouts (p’s<0.05) than controls. We collected saliva throughout the experiment and will compare salivary protein expression between caffeine and control treated animals. |