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. 2017 Jan 30:11:24.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00024. eCollection 2017.

Food Seeking in a Risky Environment: A Method for Evaluating Risk and Reward Value in Food Seeking and Consumption in Mice

Sarah H Lockie  1 , Clare V McAuley  1 , Sasha Rawlinson  1 , Natalie Guiney  1 , Zane B Andrews  1
Affiliations

Food Seeking in a Risky Environment: A Method for Evaluating Risk and Reward Value in Food Seeking and Consumption in Mice

Sarah H Lockie et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Most studies that measure food intake in mice do so in the home cage environment. This necessarily means that mice do not engage in food seeking before consumption, a behavior that is ubiquitous in free-living animals. We modified and validated several commonly used anxiety tests to include a palatable food reward within the anxiogenic zone. This allowed us to assess risk-taking behavior in food seeking in mice in response to different metabolic stimuli. We modified the open field test and the light/dark box by placing palatable peanut butter chips within a designated food zone inside the anxiogenic zone of each apparatus. We then assessed parameters of the interaction with the food reward. Fasted mice or mice treated with ghrelin showed increased consumption and increased time spent in the food zone immediately around the food reward compared to ad libitum fed mice or mice treated with saline. However, fasted mice treated with IP glucose before exposure to the behavioral arena showed reduced time in the food zone compared to fasted controls, indicating that acute metabolic signals can modify the assessment of safety in food seeking in a risky environment. The tests described in this study will be useful in assessing risk processing and incentive salience of food reward, which are intrinsic components of food acquisition outside of the laboratory environment, in a range of genetic and pharmacological models.

Keywords: behavior; food seeking; light dark box test; open field test; reward; risk.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Fasting increases time in food zone and consumption of peanut butter chip reward. Comparison of ad libitum fed and 18 h fasted mice in the reward-baited light/dark box (A–D), n = 18; reward-baited open field test (E–H), n = 12; and reward-baited elevated plus maze, (I–K), n = 20–25. FZ, food zone; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, independent measures t-test.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Ghrelin treatment increases time in food zone and consumption of peanut butter chip reward. Comparison of saline treated and ghrelin treated mice in the reward-baited light/dark (A–D), n = 8; and reward-baited open field test (E–H), n = 16–18. FZ, food zone; *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, independent measures t-test.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Glucose treatment in fasted mice decreases time in food zone and consumption of peanut butter chip reward. Comparison of 18 h fasted, saline treated, and 18 h fasted, glucose treated mice in the reward-baited light/dark (A–D), n = 15–16; and reward-baited open field test (E–H), n = 12–14. FZ, food zone; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, independent measures t-test.
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