The Effects of Response Prevention and Response Resistance on Activity-Based Anorexia in Rats
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: Activity-based anorexia (ABA) in animals has been suggested as an animal model of human anorexia nervosa in that many of the core behavioral components of the disorder such as restriction of food consumption, dramatic weight loss, and increased drive for physical activity are present in ABA. Experiment 1 demonstrated the general ABA effect of increased wheel running and decreased weight in rats over a 14 day period of wheel access and food restriction. Experiment 2 examined the effects of response prevention and response resistance on the maintenance of ABA. After one week of food restriction and running with either low or high wheel resistance, half of the rats received three days of response prevention, followed by three recovery days of normal wheel access. Rats that received the response prevention produced significantly lower response rates on the recovery days than subjects that received no response prevention. The degree of wheel resistance influenced the amount of responding, independent of response prevention, with higher resistance resulting in greater levels of wheel running than low resistance. A third experiment replicated the effect of resistance, and found that a shift to high resistance after experience with low resistance produced significantly higher final response levels that a shift from high to low resistance. These findings support the notion that learning and motivational variables affect behavioral processes involved in ABA.
Authors: Edward J. Callen, Nicole Streeb
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2985929313