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Training Rats Using Water Rewards Without Water Restriction
#MMPMID29773982
Reinagel P
Front Behav Neurosci
2018[]; 12
(?): 84
PMID29773982
show ga
High-throughput behavioral training of rodents has been a transformative
development for systems neuroscience. Water or food restriction is typically
required to motivate task engagement. We hypothesized a gap between physiological
water need and hedonic water satiety that could be leveraged to train rats for
water rewards without water restriction. We show that when Citric Acid (CA) is
added to water, female rats drink less, yet consume enough to maintain long term
health. With 24 h/day access to a visual task with water rewards, rats with ad
lib CA water performed 84% ± 18% as many trials as in the same task under water
restriction. In 2-h daily sessions, rats with ad lib CA water performed 68% ± 13%
as many trials as under water restriction. Using reward sizes <25 ?l, rats with
ad lib CA performed 804 ± 285 trials/day in live-in sessions or 364 ± 82
trials/day in limited duration daily sessions. The safety of CA water amendment
was previously shown for male rats, and the gap between water need and satiety
was similar to what we observed in females. Therefore, it is likely that this
method will generalize to male rats, though this remains to be shown. We conclude
that at least in some contexts rats can be trained using water rewards without
water restriction, benefitting both animal welfare and scientific productivity.
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