Pressure influences on air-licking behavior of rats

Abstract

In an effort to resolve a paradox posed by conflicting speculations about pressure influences on air-licking, two experiments examined this performance in thirsty rats as a consequence of manipulation of the pressure of a delivered air stream. The first experiment concurrently measured rates of both tube-contacting and initiation of access to air when four different pressures were available. The second experiment paired each of the pressures to provide direct comparisons of their capacity to influence the two dependent measures. In both experiments, tube-contacting performances yielded an inverted U-shaped function indicative of aversive influences at very high pressures, while measures of initiating access to the stream showed incremental responding to an asymptote at pressures of 350 g/cm2 and above. It was concluded that the consequences of airstream pressure manipulation may be specific to the dependent measure used to define air-licking.