The Development of Motivational Systems

Abstract

Publisher Summary The water balance, energy stores, and body temperature of the infant, however, are regulated from birth although the behavioral mechanisms used in this regulation are different from those used in the adult. In dealing with the development of these systems, the concern is the transition among different solutions to the problems of homeostasis at different stages of life. This chapter concentrates on two different but related topics—the features of milk intake that are specific and unique and the way in which the controls of milk intake in the infant relate to the controls of food and water intake in the adult. Unlike food and water intake in the adult, milk intake in the infant always involves a social interaction—between the mother and the infant. In this respect, it is like sexual behavior in the adult, though in other respects it is more like feeding or drinking. Because the mechanisms of hunger and thirst in the adult are best understood in the rat, the chapter concentrates primarily on the controls of milk intake in the same species.