Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MSc)

Department

Psychology

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

First Advisor

Rudy Eikelboom

Advisor Role

Thesis Supervisor

Abstract

Access to a running wheel causes a feeding suppression in adult rats (Afonso & Eikelboom, 2003) but it appears this wheel induced feeding suppression is not evident in weanlings (Cortright, Chandler, Lemon, and DiCarlo, 1997). This ad lib wheel and food model (ALWF) has been suggested as an animal model of anorexia nervosa (AN). Two characteristic features of AN are the disorder's very specific age of onset and the marked sex difference in incidence, with the majority of cases first becoming evident in females during puberty. It is not clear how much of the genesis of and expression of this disorder is biologically driven. The present study explores whether ALWF exhibits a sex difference in the severity of the food suppression induced by wheel access and how the wheel induced feeding suppression develops in the period from weaning until adulthood. The present study used 104 male and 104 female Sprague-Dawley rats divided into 8 single sex groups given wheel access at 26, 31, 36, 41, 46, 51, and 56 days old and a no wheel control group.

Convocation Year

2006

Convocation Season

Spring

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Psychology Commons

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