Rats anticipate and discriminate between two daily feeding times

A local circadian clock for memory?

The master clock, suprachiasmatic nucleus, is believed to control peripheral circadian oscillators throughout the brain and body. However, recent data suggest there is a circadian clock involved in learning and memory, potentially housed in the hippocampus, which is capable of acting independently of the master clock. Curiously, the hippocampal clock appears to be influenced by the master clock and by hippocampal dependent learning, while under certain conditions it may also revert to its endogenous circadian rhythm. Here we propose a mechanism by which the hippocampal clock could locally determine the nature of its entrainment. We introduce a novel theoretical framework, inspired by but extending beyond the hippocampal memory clock, which provides a new perspective on how circadian clocks throughout the brain coordinate their rhythms. Importantly, a local clock for memory would suggest that hippocampal-dependent learning at the same time every day should improve memory, opening up a range of possibilities for non-invasive therapies to alleviate the detrimental effects of circadian rhythm disruption on human health.

Consistent meal times improve performance on a daily time-place learning task

The ability of an animal to learn the spatiotemporal variability of stimuli is known as time-place learning (TPL). The present study investigated the role of the food-entrainable oscillator (FEO) in TPL. Rats were trained in an operant conditioning chamber which contained two levers that distributed a food reward, such that one lever provided food rewards in morning sessions, while the other lever provided food rewards in afternoon sessions. We expected that having access to the FEO would provide rats with more accurate depictions of time of day, leading to better performance. Rats received either one meal per day (1M group), which permitted FEO access, or many meals per day (MM group), which prevented FEO access. As predicted, 1M rats had a significantly higher percentage of correct first presses than MM rats. Once rats successfully learned the task, probe tests were conducted to determine the timing strategy used. Of the 10 rats that successfully learned the time-place discrimination, six used a circadian timing strategy. Future research should determine whether the advantage in learning seen in the rats having access to the FEO is specific to the daily TPL task used in this study, or to learning and memory tasks more generally.

High experience levels delay recruitment but promote simultaneous time-memories in honey bee foragers

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) foragers can remember both the location and time of day food is collected and, even in the absence of a reward, reconnoiter the food source at the appropriate time on subsequent days. This spatiotemporal memory (time-memory) is linked to the circadian clock and enables foragers to synchronize their behavior with floral nectar secretion rhythms, thus eliminating the need to rediscover productive food sources each day. Here, we asked whether the establishment of one time-memory influences the formation of another time-memory at the same time of day. In other words, can two time-place memories with the same 'time-stamp' co-exist? We simultaneously trained two groups of foragers from a single hive to two separate feeders at the same restricted time of day. After 5 days of training, one feeder was shut off. The second feeder continued being productive 4 more days. Our results showed that (1) foragers with high experience levels at the first source were significantly more likely than low-experience foragers to maintain fidelity to their original source and resist recruitment to the alternative source, (2) nearly one-third of foragers demonstrated multiple, overlapping time-memories by visiting both feeders at the correct time and (3) significantly more high-experience than low-experience foragers exhibited this multitasking behavior. The ability to maintain and act upon two different, yet contemporaneous, time-memories gives the forager bee a previously unknown level of versatility in attending to multiple food sources. These findings have major implications for understanding the formation and management of circadian spatiotemporal memories.

Starvation promotes odor/feeding-time associations in flies

Starvation causes a motivational state that facilitates diverse behaviors such as feeding, walking, and search. Starved Drosophila can form odor/feeding-time associations but the role of starvation in encoding of “time” is poorly understood. Here we show that the extent of starvation is correlated with the fly's ability to establish odor/feeding-time memories. Prolonged starvation promotes odor/feeding-time associations after just a single cycle of reciprocal training. We also show that starvation is required for acquisition but is dispensable for retrieval of odor/feeding-time memory. Finally, even with extended starvation, a functional circadian oscillator is indispensable for establishing odor/feeding-time memories.

Rats in a levered T-maze task show evidence of time-place discriminations in two different measures

It is difficult for rats to learn to go to an arm of a T-maze to receive food that is dependent on the time of day, unless the amount of food in each daily session is different. In the same task, rats show evidence of time-place discriminations if they are required to press levers in the arms of the T-maze, but learning is only evident when the first lever press is considered, and not the first arm visited. These data suggest that rats struggle to use time as a discriminative stimulus unless the rewards/events differ in some dimension, or unless the goal locations can be visited prior to making a response. If both of these conditions are met in the same task, it might be possible to compare time-place learning in two different measures that essentially indicate performance before and after entering the arms of the T-maze. In the present study, we investigated time-place learning in rats with a levered T-maze task in which the amounts of food varied depending on the time of day. The first arm choices and first lever presses both indicated that the rats had acquired time-place discriminations, and both of these measures became significantly different from chance during the same block. However, there were subtle differences between the two measures, which suggest that time-place discrimination is aided by visiting the goal locations.

Circadian time-place (or time-route) learning in rats with hippocampal lesions

Circadian time-place learning (TPL) is the ability to remember both the place and biological time of day that a significant event occurred (e.g., food availability). This ability requires that a circadian clock provide phase information (a time tag) to cognitive systems involved in linking representations of an event with spatial reference memory. To date, it is unclear which neuronal substrates are critical in this process, but one candidate structure is the hippocampus (HPC). The HPC is essential for normal performance on tasks that require allocentric spatial memory and exhibits circadian rhythms of gene expression that are sensitive to meal timing. Using a novel TPL training procedure and enriched, multidimensional environment, we trained rats to locate a food reward that varied between two locations relative to time of day. After rats acquired the task, they received either HPC or SHAM lesions and were re-tested. Rats with HPC lesions were initially impaired on the task relative to SHAM rats, but re-attained high scores with continued testing. Probe tests revealed that the rats were not using an alternation strategy or relying on light-dark transitions to locate the food reward. We hypothesize that transient disruption and recovery reflect a switch from HPC-dependent allocentric navigation (learning places) to dorsal striatum-dependent egocentric spatial navigation (learning routes to a location). Whatever the navigation strategy, these results demonstrate that the HPC is not required for rats to find food in different locations using circadian phase as a discriminative cue.

Rats are reluctant to use circadian timing in a daily time-place task

On daily time-place learning tasks animals can work for food at different spatial locations during sessions at different times of the day. In previous experiments rats tracked this pattern of food availability with ordinal timing-they learned to respond at the locations in the correct order each day. In contrast, pigeons used circadian timing. In this experiment rats received a mixture of morning session only days, afternoon session only days, and morning and afternoon session days. Under these conditions ordinal timing had low predictive ability, but circadian timing was potentially perfectly predictive of the location of food availability. We thought this procedural change might encourage rats to use circadian timing. However, we found little evidence that rats can use time of day information to track this daily spatiotemporal pattern of food availability. These results are suggestive of differences in the use of circadian clock consultation by rats and pigeons.

Circadian clocks and memory: time-place learning

Time-Place learning (TPL) refers to the ability of animals to remember important events that vary in both time and place. This ability is thought to be functional to optimize resource localization and predator avoidance in a circadian changing environment. Various studies have indicated that animals use their circadian system for TPL. However, not much is known about this specific role of the circadian system in cognition. This review aims to put TPL in a broader context and to provide an overview of historical background, functional aspects, and future perspectives of TPL. Recent advances have increased our knowledge on establishing TPL in a laboratory setting, leading to the development of a behavioral paradigm demonstrating the circadian nature of TPL in mice. This has enabled the investigation of circadian clock components on a functional behavioral level. Circadian TPL (cTPL) was found to be Cry clock gene dependent, confirming the essential role of Cry genes in circadian rhythms. In contrast, preliminary results have shown that cTPL is independent of Per genes. Circadian system decline with aging predicts that cTPL is age sensitive, potentially qualifying TPL as a functional model for episodic memory and aging. The underlying neurobiological mechanism of TPL awaits further examination. Here we discuss some putative mechanisms.

The effects of lighting conditions and food restriction paradigms on locomotor activity of common spiny mice, Acomys cahirinus

BACKGROUND

An endogenous circadian clock controls locomotor activity in common spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus). However, little is known about the effects of constant light (LL) on this activity or about the existence of an additional food entrainable clock. A series of experiments were performed to investigate the effects of LL and DD on tau and activity levels.

METHODS

Spiny mice were housed individually and their running wheel activity monitored. One group of mice was exposed to LD, DD and several intensities of LL. Another group was exposed to a restricted feeding (RF) paradigm in light: dark (LD) during one hour before the L to D transition. Significance of rhythmicity was assessed using Lomb-Scargle periodograms.

RESULTS

In LD all animals exhibited nocturnal activity rhythms that persisted in DD. When animals were exposed to RF (during L), all of these animals (n = 11) demonstrated significant food anticipatory activity as well as an increase in diurnal activity. This increase in diurnal activity persisted in 4/11 animals during subsequent ad libitum conditions. Under LL conditions, the locomotor rhythms of 2/11 animals appeared to entrain to RF. When animals were exposed to sequentially increasing LL intensities, rhythmicity persisted and, while activity decreased significantly, the free-running period was relatively unaffected. In addition, the period in LL was significantly longer than the period in DD. Exposure to LL also induced long-term changes (after-effects) on period and activity when animals were again exposed to DD.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall these studies demonstrate clear and robust circadian rhythms of wheel-running in A. cahirinus. In addition, LL clearly inhibited activity in this species and induced after-effects. The results also confirm the presence of a food entrainable oscillator in this species.

Food anticipatory activity behavior of mice across a wide range of circadian and non-circadian intervals

When rodents are fed in a limited amount during the daytime, they rapidly redistribute some of their nocturnal activity to the time preceding the delivery of food. In rats, anticipation of a daily meal has been interpreted as a circadian rhythm controlled by a food-entrained oscillator (FEO) with circadian limits to entrainment. Lesion experiments place this FEO outside of the light-entrainable circadian pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Mice also anticipate a fixed daily meal, but circadian limits to entrainment and anticipation of more than 2 daily meals, have not been assessed. We used a video-based behavior recognition system to quantify food anticipatory activity in mice receiving 2, 3, or 6 daily meals at intervals of 12, 8, or 4-hours (h). Individual mice were able to anticipate as many as 4 of 6 daily meals, and anticipation persisted during meal omission tests. On the 6 meal schedule, pre-prandial activity and body temperature were poorly correlated, suggesting independent regulation. Mice showed a limited ability to anticipate an 18 h feeding schedule. Finally, mice showed concurrent circadian and sub-hourly anticipation when provided with 6 small meals, at 30 minute intervals, at a fixed time of day. These results indicate that mice can anticipate feeding opportunities at a fixed time of day across a wide range of intervals not previously associated with anticipatory behavior in studies of rats. The methods described here can be exploited to determine the extent to which timing of different intervals in mice relies on common or distinct neural and molecular mechanisms.

Strain differences in a high response-cost daily time-place learning task

Previous research has shown that rats, unlike birds, do not readily demonstrate daily time-place learning (TPL). It has been suggested, however, that rats are more successful at these tasks if the response cost (RC) is increased. Widman et al. (2000) found that female Sprague Dawley (SD) rats learned a daily TPL task in which they were required to climb different towers depending on the time of day to find a food reward. Using a similar apparatus, we found that male SD rats learned the task, while male Long Evans rats did not. While all rats quickly learned to restrict the majority of their searching to the two towers that provided food, only the SD rats learned to go to the correct location at the correct time of day. Thus, there appears to be a strain difference in the effectiveness of a high RC task to promote learning. Tests of the timing strategies used revealed individual differences with one rat using a circadian strategy and another using an ordinal strategy. Post criterion decrements in performance did not allow sufficient testing to determine the timing strategies of the remaining rats. Possible interactions between strain, response cost, species typical behaviors and dependent measures are discussed.

Circadian clocks for all meal-times: anticipation of 2 daily meals in rats

Anticipation of a daily meal in rats has been conceptualized as a rest-activity rhythm driven by a food-entrained circadian oscillator separate from the pacemaker generating light-dark (LD) entrained rhythms. Rats can also anticipate two daily mealtimes, but whether this involves independently entrained oscillators, one ‘continuously consulted’ clock, cue-dependent non-circadian interval timing or a combination of processes, is unclear. Rats received two daily meals, beginning 3-h (meal 1) and 13-h (meal 2) after lights-on (LD 14∶10). Anticipatory wheel running began 68±8 min prior to meal 1 and 101±9 min prior to meal 2 but neither the duration nor the variability of anticipation bout lengths exhibited the scalar property, a hallmark of interval timing. Meal omission tests in LD and constant dark (DD) did not alter the timing of either bout of anticipation, and anticipation of meal 2 was not altered by a 3-h advance of meal 1. Food anticipatory running in this 2-meal protocol thus does not exhibit properties of interval timing despite the availability of external time cues in LD. Across all days, the two bouts of anticipation were uncorrelated, a result more consistent with two independently entrained oscillators than a single consulted clock. Similar results were obtained for meals scheduled 3-h and 10-h after lights-on, and for a food-bin measure of anticipation. Most rats that showed weak or no anticipation to one or both meals exhibited elevated activity at mealtime during 1 or 2 day food deprivation tests in DD, suggesting covert operation of circadian timing in the absence of anticipatory behavior. A control experiment confirmed that daytime feeding did not shift LD-entrained rhythms, ruling out displaced nocturnal activity as an explanation for daytime activity. The results favor a multiple oscillator basis for 2-meal anticipatory rhythms and provide no evidence for involvement of cue-dependent interval timing.

Food anticipation depends on oscillators and memories in both body and brain

Despite the importance of learning and circadian rhythms to feeding, there has been relatively little effort to integrate these separate lines of research. In this review, we focus on how light and food entrainable oscillators contribute to the anticipation of food. In particular, we examine the evidence for temporal conditioning of food entrainable oscillators throughout the body. The evidence suggests a shift away from previous notions of a single locus or neural network of food entrainable oscillators to a distributed system involving dynamic feedback among cells of the body and brain. Several recent advances, including documentation of peroxiredoxin metabolic circadian oscillation and anticipatory behavior in the absence of a central nervous system, support the possibility of conditioned signals from the periphery in determining anticipatory behavior. Individuals learn to detect changes in internal and external signals that occur as a consequence of the brain and body preparing for an impending meal. Cues temporally near and far from actual energy content can then be used to optimize responses to temporally predictable and unpredictable cues in the environment.

Neurobiology of food anticipatory circadian rhythms

Circadian rhythms in mammals can be entrained by daily schedules of light or food availability. A master light-entrainable circadian pacemaker located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is comprised of a population of cell autonomous, transcriptionally based circadian oscillators with defined retinal inputs, circadian clock genes and neural outputs. By contrast, the neurobiology of food-entrainable circadian rhythmicity remains poorly understood at the systems and cellular levels. Induction of food-anticipatory activity rhythms by daily feeding schedules does not require the SCN, but these rhythms do exhibit defining properties of circadian clock control. Clock gene rhythms expressed in other brain regions and in peripheral organs are preferentially reset by mealtime, but lesions of specific hypothalamic, corticolimbic and brainstem structures do not eliminate all food anticipatory rhythms, suggesting control by a distributed, decentralized system of oscillators, or the existence of a critical oscillator at an unknown location. The melanocortin system and dorsomedial hypothalamus may play modulatory roles setting the level of anticipatory activity. The metabolic hormones ghrelin and leptin are not required to induce behavioral food anticipatory rhythms, but may also participate in gain setting. Clock gene mutations that disrupt light-entrainable rhythms generally do not eliminate food anticipatory rhythms, suggesting a novel timing mechanism. Recent evidence for non-transcriptional and network based circadian rhythmicity provides precedence, but any such mechanisms are likely to interact closely with known circadian clock genes, and some important double and triple clock gene knockouts remain to be phenotyped for food entrainment. Given the dominant role of food as an entraining stimulus for metabolic rhythms, the timing of daily food intake and the fidelity of food entrainment mechanisms are likely to have clinical relevance.

Rats acquire a low-response-cost daily time-place task with differential amounts of food

Gallistel (1990) theorized that when animals encounter a biologically significant event, they automatically form a tripartite code consisting of the time, place, and nature of the event. Recent research examining such time-place learning (TPL) has shown that rats are reluctant to perform TPL tasks and appear to do so only under high-response-cost situations (Thorpe, Bates, & Wilkie, 2003; Widman, Gordon, & Timberlake, 2000). In the present study, we trained rats on a low-response-cost daily TPL task, in which the amount of food varied with the spatiotemporal contingencies. It was found that rats readily learned this task. We hypothesize that, rather than automatically encoding a tripartite code when faced with a biologically important event, rats instead automatically encode bipartite codes consisting of time-event and event-place information.

Evidence for an alternation strategy in time-place learning

Many different conclusions concerning what type of mechanism rats use to solve a daily time-place task have emerged in the literature. The purpose of this study was to test three competing explanations of time-place discrimination. Rats (n = 10) were tested twice daily in a T-maze, separated by approximately 7 h. Food was available at one location in the morning and another location in the afternoon. After the rats learned to visit each location at the appropriate time, tests were omitted to evaluate whether the rats were utilizing time-of-day (i.e., a circadian oscillator) or an alternation strategy (i.e., visiting a correct location is a cue to visit the next location). Performance on this test was significantly lower than chance, ruling out the use of time-of-day. A phase advance of the light cycle was conducted to test the alternation strategy and timing with respect to the light cycle (i.e., an interval timer). There was no difference between probe and baseline performance. These results suggest that the rats used an alternation strategy to meet the temporal and spatial contingencies in the time-place task.

Evidence for time-place learning in the Morris water maze without food restriction but with increased response cost

Time-place learning is the ability to distinguish between resources that vary in location at different times of day. Only one previous report has demonstrated successful time-place learning without using food as reward. In this experiment, satiated rats failed to form time-place discriminations in a Morris water maze while food deprived rats did, leading to the conclusion that food system activation is necessary for time-place learning. However, in addition to food system activation, response cost was also increased, which previously has been demonstrated to be effective in allowing the formation of time-place discriminations. The purpose of these two experiments is to test whether food system activation or heightened response cost allowed for time-place learning in the Morris water maze. In the first experiment, we replicate the failure to find time-place discriminations in the Morris water maze without food restriction and without increased response cost. In the second experiment, we found that increased response cost without food restriction was effective in allowing the formation of a time-place discrimination. The implications of this result are discussed in light of the timing mechanism used for time-place discriminations, the nature of the response cost, and the event-time-place tripartite association.

Social influences on mammalian circadian rhythms: animal and human studies

While light is considered the dominant stimulus for entraining (synchronizing) mammalian circadian rhythms to local environmental time, social stimuli are also widely cited as 'zeitgebers' (time-cues). This review critically assesses the evidence for social influences on mammalian circadian rhythms, and possible mechanisms of action. Social stimuli may affect circadian behavioural programmes by regulating the phase and period of circadian clocks (i.e. a zeitgeber action, either direct or by conditioning to photic zeitgebers), by influencing daily patterns of light exposure or modulating light input to the clock, or by associative learning processes that utilize circadian time as a discriminative or conditioned stimulus. There is good evidence that social stimuli can act as zeitgebers. In several species maternal signals are the primary zeitgeber in utero and prior to weaning. Adults of some species can also be phase shifted or entrained by single or periodic social interactions, but these effects are often weak, and appear to be mediated by social stimulation of arousal. There is no strong evidence yet for sensory-specific nonphotic inputs to the clock. The circadian phase-dependence of clock resetting to social stimuli or arousal (the 'nonphotic' phase response curve, PRC), where known, is distinct from that to light and similar in diurnal and nocturnal animals. There is some evidence that induction of arousal can modulate light input to the clock, but no studies yet of whether social stimuli can shift the clock by conditioning to photic cues, or be incorporated into the circadian programme by associative learning. In humans, social zeitgebers appear weak by comparison with light. In temporal isolation or under weak light-dark cycles, humans may ignore social cues and free-run independently, although cases of mutual synchrony among two or more group-housed individuals have been reported. Social cues may affect circadian timing by controlling sleep-wake states, but the phase of entrainment observed to fixed sleep-wake schedules in dim light is consistent with photic mediation (scheduled variations in behavioural state necessarily create daily light-dark cycles unless subjects are housed in constant dark or have no eyes). By contrast, discrete exercise sessions can induce phase shifts consistent with the nonphotic PRC observed in animal studies. The best evidence for social entrainment in humans is from a few totally blind subjects who synchronize to the 24 h day, or to near-24 h sleep-wake schedules under laboratory conditions. However, the critical entraining stimuli have not yet been identified, and there are no reported cases yet of social entrainment in bilaterally enucleated blind subjects. The role of social zeitgebers in mammalian behavioural ecology, their mechanisms of action, and their utility for manipulating circadian rhythms in humans, remains to be more fully elaborated.

Restricted feeding facilitates time-place learning in adult rats

Many species can acquire time-of-day discrimination when tested in food reinforced place learning tasks. It is believed that this type of learning is dependent upon the ability of animals to consult their internal circadian pacemakers entrained by various environmental zeitgebers, such as light-dark cycles and scheduled restricted feeding. In the present study, we examined, (1) whether rats can acquire time-of-day discrimination in an aversively motivated water maze task wherein an escape platform is located in one position in the morning and in another position in the afternoon; (2) whether time-of-day cues provided by the light- and feeding-entrainable pacemakers may have divergent impacts upon the ability of rats to learn this task. Two groups of rats, both maintained on 12-h light:12-h dark cycle, were used; in one group, animals had free access to food, whereas in the other, they were subjected to a restricted feeding protocol (60% of food consumed by rats fed ad libitum, once daily). Despite the heightened difficulty of the task, food-restricted rats were apparently able to acquire associations between two different platform positions and two different times of day, as indicated by the fact that the percentage of discrimination errors in this group declined progressively, as a function of training, and stabilized at the level of 22+/-9%. In contrast, rats that were fed ad libitum, even after extensive training, failed to perform the task above level of chance. These data indicate that time-place learning is a universal, reward-nonspecific, cognitive phenomenon. They furthermore suggest that the ability of animals to integrate spatial and temporal information can be dependent on the access to timing stimuli provided by the feeding-entrainable circadian system.

Behavioral and neurochemical investigation of circadian time-place learning in the rat

The ability to form an association between the time and the place of food availability, namely time-place learning, is presumably important for survival. The present study was designed to examine time-place learning and to identify exogenous and endogenous factors that may affect this behavior in rats. In an initial experiment, rats displayed poor time-place behavior and appeared to prefer the feeder that was closer to the center aisle and water supply. When these cues were minimized in a subsequent experiment, rats consistently displayed the time-place discrimination by exhibiting food anticipatory activity (FAA) at the correct location prior to each meal time. These rats also showed significant correlations between the level of FAA and the amount of dopamine turnover (the dihydroxyphenylacetic acid/dopamine ratio) in the nucleus accumbens and paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, indicating possible involvement of regional dopaminergic activity in time-place behavior. No correlation was found for norepinephrine, epinephrine, or serotonin. In addition, the correlation between FAA and dopamine turnover was not found when rats were entrained to only one meal per day. Together, the data suggest that rats can learn the time-place discrimination under proper experimental conditions and that dopamine may play a role in the expression of this behavior.

Discrimination of circadian phase in intact and suprachiasmatic nuclei-ablated rats

This study examined whether the circadian system of rats can serve as a consulted clock for discriminating time of day. Food restricted rats housed in activity wheels were trained to lever press for food in a two-lever T-maze in which the left arm was correct in a morning feeding session, and the right arm in an afternoon session (7 h interval). All six rats learned the task (discrimination ratios > chance on 85-95% of sessions) and exhibited anticipatory wheel running prior to most sessions. Performance was not disrupted by inverting the LD cycle or by omitting 1-3 sessions, indicating that learning was not dependent on light-dark cues, alternation strategies, or physiological states associated with intermeal interval. Five of six additional rats with ablations of the suprachiasmatic nucleus light-entrainable pacemaker acquired the discrimination, indicating that time-of-day cues can be provided by another circadian pacemaker (likely food-entrainable). The results provide the first clear evidence that the circadian system in a mammal can function as a consulted clock that provides discriminative time cues for cognitive processes subserving behavioral plasticity.

Two meals promote entrainment of rat food-anticipatory and rest-activity rhythms

Ten female rats were fed early and late in the dark period of a 12-12 h light-dark cycle and then were fed at the same times in constant darkness. In both conditions rats were active prior to mealtimes and manifested no free-running components of activity. When the rats were placed in constant darkness and either were fed early and late in the inactive period, or had free access to food, six of the rats had rest-activity rhythms different from 24.0 h. Though a masking explanation could not be ruled out, two meals during the active period apparently entrained the rest-activity rhythms of these rats. The light-entrainable oscillator appears to integrate information from cycles of both illumination and food availability. Multiple sources of temporal information may promote more stable entrainment of the rest-activity rhythm than the light-dark cycle alone, especially in a burrow dwelling organism, like the rat, that can be exposed to inconsistent light-dark transitions.

Two meals in the active period of the rat both entrain food-anticipatory activity

We examined the effect of presenting two meals at fixed times on the activity of six intact female rats. Rats maintained on a 12-12 h light-dark cycle were fed: ad lib, at two randomly chosen times during the active period, and at 3 and 9 h, 1 and 7 h, and 5 and 11 h after light offset. During ad lib and random feeding conditions, wheel turning primarily occurred during the first half of the active period. During fixed-time feeding conditions, wheel turning was concentrated around the times of meal availability. To determine whether anticipatory wheel turning during fixed-time feeding conditions was based on a circadian mechanism, each condition was followed by a test: light cues omitted and rats were deprived of food for 2 consecutive days. Wheel turning patterns observed while a feeding condition was in effect persisted during meal omission. Nest and food/water compartment visits were not as sensitive to feeding times. Meals may have modified bouts of activity that are also synchronized by light-dark cycles.

Circadian food-anticipatory activity: formal models and physiological mechanisms

Rats and other species exhibit food-anticipatory activity (FAA) to daily mealtime under circadian (24 h) food access schedules. A critical review of several explanatory models indicates that hourglass clocks and associative learning processes are inadequate to explain many properties of FAA in intact and suprachiasmatic nuclei ablated rodents. A computational learning model, involving circadian clock consultation and phase memory, accounts for some but not all of these properties. An entrainment model, invoking separate, compound food- and light-entrainable oscillators, provides a more complete account of FAA. However, FAA may be simulated best by a model that combines oscillator entrainment with clock consultation and memory for circadian phase. Species as diverse as bees, birds, and mammals appear to share many features of FAA in common; differences may be explained in terms of oscillator organization and the ability to represent multiple circadian phases memorially. Physiological mechanisms of FAA are largely unknown; strategies for localization of entrainment pathways and oscillators, and a modest data base, are reviewed.

Restricted feeding: a nonphotic zeitgeber in the rabbit

The free-running circadian rhythms of five behavioral functions of the rabbit were masked by unsignalled restricted food access (RF). The rhythms were reorganized immediately, a large part of events being assembled around the end of food availability. In addition to masking a slower process of entrainment was running: a component of anticipatory activity (AA) was established 1-3 h before food access. AA consolidated in continuation of the camouflaged free-running rhythm. The time of AA establishment correlated significantly with the phase angle difference (PAD) between free-running rhythm and RF: it decreased with decreasing positive PAD. With the consolidation of AA, the rhythms had attained a stable phase relation to RF. At the termination of RF, the circadian rhythms started to free-run again, the phase being dependent from that of the preceding RF schedule. The period length of the RF zeitgeber (TRF) had some impact on tau of the circadian rhythm. This aftereffect was most evident after termination of TRF less than 24 h: the free-running rhythm continued for up to 49 days with a tau less than 24 h and turned longer thereafter. The results demonstrate the entrainment of circadian rhythms of the rabbit by RF in addition to masking.