Abstract
Water consumption and the temporal pattern of drinking were monitored during schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) testing on a fixed-time 60 sec schedule of reinforcement in desalivate and control rats. One group of desalivate rats (DS 12) were allowed 12 days to acquire prandial drinking in the home cage prior to SIP testing while a second group (DS 1) was desalivated on the day before testing. At the start of testing, only Group DS 12 displayed an efficient pattern of prandial drinking during home cage-feeding periods. The results revealed that Group DS 12 developed polydipsia and postpellet drinking behavior reliably faster than controls and Group DS 1. Group DS 1 and controls showed similar acquisition rates. However, both desalivate groups showed attenuated asymptotic levels of polydipsia compared to controls and similar asymptotic levels of postprandial drinking. The results do not support a dry-mouth theory of SIP. The hypothesis of Murphy and Brown (1975) that SIP requires the learning of prandial drinking in the intact rat was supported by the data. The impact of these findings in the understanding of the etiology of other schedule-induced behaviors is discussed.
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