Abstract
Hunger and thirst are fundamental biological processes that drive consumption behavior in humans and non-human animals. While the existing literature in neuroscience suggests that these satiety states change how consumable rewards are represented in the brain, it remains unclear as to how they change animal choice behavior and the underlying economic preferences. Here, I used combined techniques from experimental economics, psychology, and neuroscience to measure food preferences of marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus), a recently developed primate model for neuroscience. Hunger states of animals were manipulated by scheduling feeding intervals, resulting in three different conditions: sated, non-sated, and hungry. During these hunger states, animals performed pairwise choices of food items, which included all possible pairwise combinations of five different food items except for same-food pairs. Results showed that hunger enhanced economic rationality, evident as a decrease of transitivity violations (item A was preferred to item B, and B to C, but C was preferred to A). Further analysis demonstrated that hungry monkeys chose more-preferred items over less-preferred items in a more deterministic manner, while the individual food preferences appeared to remain stable across hunger states. These results suggest that hunger enhances consistent choice behavior and shifts animals towards efficient outcome maximization.
Highlights
There is a growing consensus in neuroscience that brain networks involved in economic decision making are strongly influenced by hunger and thirst[1,2,3]
While humans and animals do not conform to some models of economic rationality, it remains unclear how hunger states relate to transitivity violations and economic rationality
The neural activity involved in this devaluation has been suggested to be distributed across the central nervous system[25,26,27], but these studies do not highlight the overall effect of hunger on food preferences in the economic sense
Summary
There is a growing consensus in neuroscience that brain networks involved in economic decision making are strongly influenced by hunger and thirst[1,2,3]. A logically consistent chooser behaves as if he consults an internal preference ranking of items (i.e., utility), and a choice is processed to maximize benefits according to these internal preferences These economic frameworks have been used in noneconomic work in animals, with the aims of understanding to what extent animals and humans share degrees of economic rationality[5, 15]. While humans and animals do not conform to some models of economic rationality, it remains unclear how hunger states relate to transitivity violations and economic rationality Another line of inquiry in neuroscience and psychology has examined the effects of satiety selective to a particular food item (i.e. taste) on consumption behavior, known as sensory-specific satiety or reinforcer devaluation[22, 23]. The results suggest that hunger enhances consistent choice behavior and shifts animals towards efficient outcome maximization
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
