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Trzeciak JR, Steele AD. Studying food entrainment: Models, methods, and musings. Front Nutr 2022; 9:998331. [PMID: 36211505 PMCID: PMC9532691 DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2022.998331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to tell time relative to predictable feeding opportunities has a long history of research, going back more than 100 years with behavioral observations of honeybees and rats. Animals that have access to food at a particular time of day exhibit “food anticipatory activity” (FAA), which is a preprandial increase in activity and arousal thought to be driven by food entrained circadian oscillator(s). However, the mechanisms behind adaptation of behavior to timed feeding continue to elude our grasp. Methods used to study circadian entrainment by food vary depending on the model system and the laboratory conducting the experiments. Most studies have relied on rodent model systems due to neuroanatomical tools and genetic tractability, but even among studies of laboratory mice, methods vary considerably. A lack of consistency within the field in experimental design, reporting, and definition of food entrainment, or even FAA, makes it difficult to compare results across studies or even within the same mutant mouse strain, hindering interpretation of replication studies. Here we examine the conditions used to study food as a time cue and make recommendations for study design and reporting.
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Aguayo A, Martin CS, Huddy TF, Ogawa-Okada M, Adkins JL, Steele AD. Sex differences in circadian food anticipatory activity are not altered by individual manipulations of sex hormones or sex chromosome copy number in mice. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0191373. [PMID: 29385171 PMCID: PMC5792018 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2017] [Accepted: 01/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent studies in mice have demonstrated a sexual dimorphism in circadian entrainment to scheduled feeding. On a time restricted diet, males tend to develop food anticipatory activity (FAA) sooner than females and with a higher amplitude of activity. The underlying cause of this sex difference remains unknown. One study suggests that sex hormones, both androgens and estrogens, modulate food anticipatory activity in mice. Here we present results suggesting that the sex difference in FAA is unrelated to gonadal sex hormones. While a sex difference between males and females in FAA on a timed, calorie restricted diet was observed there were no differences between intact and gonadectomized mice in the onset or magnitude of FAA. To test other sources of the sex difference in circadian entrainment to scheduled feeding, we used sex chromosome copy number mutants, but there was no difference in FAA when comparing XX, XY-, XY-;Sry Tg, and XX;Sry Tg mice, demonstrating that gene dosage of sex chromosomes does not mediate the sex difference in FAA. Next, we masculinized female mice by treating them with 17-beta estradiol during the neonatal period; yet again, we saw no difference in FAA between control and masculinized females. Finally, we observed that there was no longer a sex difference in FAA for older mice, suggesting that the sex difference in FAA is age-dependent. Thus, our study demonstrates that singular manipulations of gonadal hormones, sex chromosomes, or developmental patterning are not able to explain the difference in FAA between young male and female mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Aguayo
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA, United States of America
| | - Camille S. Martin
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA, United States of America
| | - Timothy F. Huddy
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA, United States of America
| | - Maya Ogawa-Okada
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA, United States of America
| | - Jamie L. Adkins
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA, United States of America
| | - Andrew D. Steele
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Pomona, CA, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Scheduled feeding restores memory and modulates c-Fos expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus and septohippocampal complex. Sci Rep 2017; 7:6755. [PMID: 28754901 PMCID: PMC5533780 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-06963-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2017] [Accepted: 06/22/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Disruptions in circadian timing impair spatial memory in humans and rodents. Circadian-arrhythmic Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) exhibit substantial deficits in spatial working memory as assessed by a spontaneous alternation (SA) task. The present study found that daily scheduled feeding rescued spatial memory deficits in these arrhythmic animals. Improvements in memory persisted for at least 3 weeks after the arrhythmic hamsters were switched back to ad libitum feeding. During ad libitum feeding, locomotor activity resumed its arrhythmic state, but performance on the SA task varied across the day with a peak in daily performance that corresponded to the previous daily window of food anticipation. At the end of scheduled feeding, c-Fos brain mapping revealed differential gene expression in entrained versus arrhythmic hamsters in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that paralleled changes in the medial septum and hippocampus, but not in other neural structures. These data show that scheduled feeding can improve cognitive performance when SCN timing has been compromised, possibly by coordinating activity in the SCN and septohippocampal pathway.
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Abstract
Circadian rhythms play an influential role in nearly all aspects of physiology and behavior in the vast majority of species on Earth. The biological clockwork that regulates these rhythms is dynamic over the lifespan: rhythmic activities such as sleep/wake patterns change markedly as we age, and in many cases they become increasingly fragmented. Given that prolonged disruptions of normal rhythms are highly detrimental to health, deeper knowledge of how our biological clocks change with age may create valuable opportunities to improve health and longevity for an aging global population. In this Review, we synthesize key findings from the study of circadian rhythms in later life, identify patterns of change documented to date, and review potential physiological mechanisms that may underlie these changes.
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Poulin AM, Timofeeva E. The dynamics of neuronal activation during food anticipation and feeding in the brain of food-entrained rats. Brain Res 2008; 1227:128-41. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2008.06.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2007] [Revised: 04/04/2008] [Accepted: 06/15/2008] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
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Abstract
Background Age-related impairments in cognitive functions represent a growing clinical and social issue. Genetic and behavioral characterization of animal models can provide critical information on the intrinsic and environmental factors that determine the deterioration or preservation of cognitive abilities throughout life. Methodology/Principal Findings Behavior of wild-type, mutant and gamma-irradiated zebrafish (Danio rerio) was documented using image-analysis technique. Conditioned responses to spatial, visual and temporal cues were investigated in young, middle-aged and old animals. The results demonstrate that zebrafish aging is associated with changes in cognitive responses to emotionally positive and negative experiences, reduced generalization of adaptive associations, increased stereotypic and reduced exploratory behavior and altered temporal entrainment. Genetic upregulation of cholinergic transmission attenuates cognitive decline in middle-aged achesb55/+ mutants, compared to wild-type siblings. In contrast, the genotoxic stress of gamma-irradiation accelerates the onset of cognitive impairment in young zebrafish. Conclusions/Significance These findings would allow the use of powerful molecular biological resources accumulated in the zebrafish field to address the mechanisms of cognitive senescence, and promote the search for therapeutic strategies which may attenuate age-related cognitive decline.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lili Yu
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of MedicineBoston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Valter Tucci
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of MedicineBoston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Shuji Kishi
- Department of Cancer Biology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical SchoolBoston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Irina V. Zhdanova
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of MedicineBoston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
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Abstract
Mammals organize many of their activities around rhythmic events in their environments. Primary among these events is the daily light-dark cycle. However, for many animals, food availability is rhythmic or quasi-rhythmic and is therefore a potential synchronizing cue. While circadian rhythms in both behavior and physiological activity can be entrained in animals via meal-feeding schedules, the mechanism by which this occurs remains poorly understood. Similarities between the circadian effects of restricted feeding and the effects of chronic methamphetamine treatment may be indicative of a common mechanism. This article argues that reward (or the arousal that accompanies it) may be the final common pathway for such nonphotic circadian inputs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alec J Davidson
- Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, USA
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Tanaka Y, Kurasawa M, Nakamura K. Cholinergic and dopaminergic mechanisms involved in the recovery of circadian anticipation by aniracetam in aged rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2002; 72:45-53. [PMID: 11900768 DOI: 10.1016/s0091-3057(01)00734-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
We have reported that repeated administration of aniracetam (100 mg/kg p.o.) for 7 consecutive days recovers mealtime-associated circadian anticipatory behavior diminished in aged rats. The present study examines the mode of action underlying the restoration by aniracetam with various types of receptor antagonists. Coadministration of scopolamine (0.1 mg/kg i.p.) or haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg i.p.) for the last 3 days significantly reduced the restorative effects of aniracetam without affecting the timed feeding-induced anticipatory behavior by each receptor antagonist itself. The other receptor antagonists, mecamylamine (3 mg/kg i.p.), 2,3-dihydroxy-6-nitro-7-sulfamoyl-benzo(F)quinoxaline (NBQX, 1 microg/rat i.c.v.) had no effect on either the basal or aniracetam-elicited circadian anticipation. In contrast, ketanserin (1 mg/kg i.p.) itself recovered the diminished anticipatory behavior as aniracetam did, but it did not alter the restorative effects of aniracetam. Among the receptor antagonists tested, NBQX reduced appetite and haloperidol induced circadian hypoactivity. These results suggest that the food-entrainable circadian oscillations or the temporal regulatory system of behavior is modulated by cholinergic, dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. Furthermore, aniracetam may restore the aging-diminished behavioral anticipation by activating muscarinic acetylcholine (ACh) and/or dopamine (DA) D2 receptors through the enhanced release of ACh and/or DA in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yushiro Tanaka
- CNS Supporting Laboratory, Nippon Roche Research Center, 200 Kajiwara, Kamakura, Kanagawa 247-8530, Japan
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Nakamura K. Aniracetam: its novel therapeutic potential in cerebral dysfunctional disorders based on recent pharmacological discoveries. CNS DRUG REVIEWS 2002; 8:70-89. [PMID: 12070527 PMCID: PMC6741661 DOI: 10.1111/j.1527-3458.2002.tb00216.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Aniracetam is a pyrrolidinone-type cognition enhancer that has been clinically used in the treatment of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia following stroke and in Alzheimer's disease. New discoveries in the behavioral pharmacology, biochemistry and pharmacokinetics of aniracetam provided new indications for this drug in the treatment of various CNS disorders or disease states. This article reviews these new findings and describes the effects of aniracetam in various rodent models of mental function impairment or cerebral dysfunction. Also, several metabolites of aniracetam have been reported to affect learning and memory in animals. It is, therefore, conceivable that major metabolites of aniracetam contribute to its pharmacological effects. The animal models, used in pharmacological evaluation of aniracetam included models of hypoattention, hypovigilance-arousal, impulsiveness, hyperactivity, fear and anxiety, depression, impaired rapid-eye movement sleep, disturbed temporal regulation, behavioral performance, and bladder hyperactivity. These are models of clinical disorders or symptoms that may include personality disorders, anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and sleep disorders. At present, there is no convincing evidence that promising effects of aniracetam in the animal models will guarantee its clinical efficacy. It is conceivable, however, that clinical trials will demonstrate beneficial effects of aniracetam in the above listed disease states. New findings regarding the mechanism of action of aniracetam, its central target sites, and its effects on signal transduction are also discussed in this review article.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kazuo Nakamura
- Department of Product Research, Nippon Roche Research Center, 200 Kajiwara, Kamakura, 247-8530, Japan.
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Díaz-Muñoz M, Vázquez-Martínez O, Aguilar-Roblero R, Escobar C. Anticipatory changes in liver metabolism and entrainment of insulin, glucagon, and corticosterone in food-restricted rats. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2000; 279:R2048-56. [PMID: 11080068 DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.2000.279.6.r2048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Restricted feeding schedules entrain behavioral and physiological circadian rhythms, which depend on a food-entrainable oscillator (FEO). The mechanism of the FEO might depend on digestive and endocrine processes regulating energy balance. The present study characterizes the dynamics of circulating corticosterone, insulin, and glucagon and regulatory parameters of liver metabolism in rats under restricted feeding schedules. With respect to ad libitum controls, food-restricted rats showed 1) an increase in corticosterone and glucagon and a decrease in insulin before food access, indicating a predominant catabolic state; and 2) a reduction in lactate-to-pyruvate and beta-hydroxybutyrate-to-acetoacetate ratios, indicating an oxidized cytoplasmic and mitochondrial redox state in the liver metabolism. All these changes were reversed after feeding. Moreover, liver energy charge in food-restricted rats did not show a significant modification before feeding, despite an increase in adenine nucleotides, but showed an important decrease after food intake. Variations detected in the liver of food-restricted rats are different from those prevailing under 24-h fasting. These observations suggest "anticipatory activity" of the liver metabolism to optimize the processing of nutrients to daily feeding. Data also suggest a possible relationship of the liver and endocrine signals with the FEO.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Díaz-Muñoz
- Departamento de Biología del Desarrollo, Centro de Neurobiología, México DF 04510, México
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Abstract
Large meals scheduled at greater-than-circadian periods (such as T = 31 h) tend to elicit enhanced activity approximately 24 h subsequent to receipt. These studies characterized the process responsible for this meal-engendered "circadian ensuing activity" (meal CEA). Female Sprague-Dawley rats were housed in stations containing a running wheel, pellet dispenser, and lights. Young, middle-aged, or suprachiasmatic-nucleus (SCN)-lesioned rats were given two 1-h meals every 31 or 34 h. Meals were separated by alternating short and long fasts. Most young intact rats engaged in enhanced activity approximately 24 h subsequent to the start of the two-meal series. This circadian ensuing activity underwent large, abrupt daily displacements in response to daily meal delays, was manifested to some degree at all times of day, had an amplitude that was modulated by circadian time of day, was attenuated in middle-aged rats, was evident in SCN-lesioned rats, and oscillated following termination of the feeding schedule. A single experience with food at a novel time of day can "reset" an SCN-independent oscillating process responsible for a circadian activity pattern. CEA has features not readily accommodated by present models of "food-anticipatory activity." The readiness with which the process can be reset implies a keen sensitivity to shifts in the time of food availability but could also produce aberrant behavioral patterns. A T >> 24-h feeding schedule appears to be an ideal procedure with which to study the specific food-related factors responsible for resetting circadian processes and producing a subsequent reallocation of daily activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- W White
- Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA
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Abstract
Aged rats often display abnormal circadian activity rhythms; the rhythm amplitude is low and entrainment to light-dark cycles is irregular. The activity rhythm of young rats can be entrained by both light and nonphotic cues, specifically food availability. In young rats, entrainment to restricted feeding cycles does not depend on intact suprachiasmatic nuclei, the presumed anatomical location of the light-entrainable oscillator. In this study, aged rats that displayed disrupted entrainment to light were assessed for their ability to entrain to restricted feeding schedules. Aged rats, young controls, and young suprachiasmatic nuclei-lesioned (SCN) rats were placed on a food restriction schedule (FR) for 14 days. Food was available for 2 h during the light phase of a 12-h light-dark cycle. Despite the absence of entrainment to light/dark cycles, both SCN-lesioned and aged groups showed entrainment to FR, with clear bouts of anticipatory activity during a period of complete food deprivation following 2 weeks of FR. The results suggest that the dysrhythmia of aged rats is a result of natural deterioration of a central circadian light-entrainable pacemaker, but that a secondary oscillator entrainable to food cycles is spared.
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Affiliation(s)
- E C Walcott
- Department of Psychobiology, University of California Irvine, USA
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Shibata S, Ono M, Minamoto Y, Watanabe S. Attenuating effect of serotonin receptor antagonists on impairment of mealtime-associated activity rhythm in old rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1995; 51:541-4. [PMID: 7667383 DOI: 10.1016/0091-3057(95)90577-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
In the present study, we examined attenuating effect of serotonin (5-HT) receptor antagonists on the impairment of the time perception presented by daily scheduled feeding in old rats. When feeding was restricted to a single meal at a fixed time of day (1300-1700 h) for six consecutive days, young rats exhibited intense locomotor activity from 1-3 h before feeding time. Intense locomotor activity was observed between 1200 adn 1700 h in young animals even on the fasting day (day 7) (mealtime-associated activity). However, this mealtime-associated activity was impaired in 24-mo-old rats. Daily injections of 5-HT2 receptor antagonists, mianserin or ritanserin, or a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, Y25130, at 1700 h for 6 consecutive days significantly and dose-dependently attenuated the impairment of mealtime-associated activity on the fasting day in old rats without affecting the food intake. Our results suggest that the blockade of 5-HT2 and/or 5-HT3 receptors attenuates impairment of the manifestation of mealtime-associated anticipatory activity related to temporal learning in old rats.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Shibata
- Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
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Koster-van Hoffen GC, Mirmiran M, Bos NP, Witting W, Delagrange P, Guardiola-Lemaitre B. Effects of a novel melatonin analog on circadian rhythms of body temperature and activity in young, middle-aged, and old rats. Neurobiol Aging 1993; 14:565-9. [PMID: 8295659 DOI: 10.1016/0197-4580(93)90040-i] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Circadian rhythms of body temperature and activity were recorded in young, middle-aged, and old rats. A new melatonin analog, S20242, was administered daily around the onset of darkness for a 2-week period. Compared to the young animals, there was a significant age-related reduction in the amplitude and stability of body temperature and activity in both the middle-aged and old rats. In these two groups there was an improvement of the circadian rhythm of body temperature as a result of daily application of the melatonin analog.
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Abstract
Rats anticipate a fixed daily feeding time by entrainment of a component of their multioscillatory circadian system. The range of stimuli capable of entraining this component is little studied. Previous studies suggest that restricted water access is not an effective entrainment stimulus, as measured by general locomotion. The present study re-examined the issue, using two other measures of activity: wheel running and activity at a food-water delivery bin. Rats restricted to 1 hr of water each day in the middle of the light and to food in the 12-hr dark period showed no anticipation of this event in the wheel-running measure, but some rats did show anticipation in the delivery bin activity measure. Rats (bin activity measure only) restricted to 1 hr of water and 1 hr of food separated by intervals of 7, 10, or 12 hr, in either the light or the dark, showed consistent anticipation of food access time but little or no anticipation of water access time. Water access time also did not sustain food anticipatory rhythms in animals whose food-water schedules were reversed. However, deprivation of water or of both food and water for 72 or 90 hr was usually associated with specific increases in bin activity at both the usual feeding and drinking times. Water access, like food, appears to provide cues capable of entraining an anticipatory circadian mechanism. Differences in the type and amount of anticipatory activity preceding these events may reflect differences in the strengths of the two entrainment cues and/or in the activity levels or specific behavioral strategies promoted by hunger and thirst.
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Affiliation(s)
- R E Mistlberger
- Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
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