When a rat is on a limited fixed-time food schedule with full access to a running wheel (activity-based anorexia model, ABA), its activity level will increase hours prior to the feeding period. This activity, called food-anticipatory activity (FAA), is a hypothesized parallel to the hyperactivity symptom in human anorexia nervosa. To investigate in depth the characteristics of FAA, we retrospec...

Timing activity to match resource availability is a widely conserved ability in nature. Scheduled feeding of a limited amount of food induces increased activity prior to feeding time in animals as diverse as fish and rodents. Typically, food anticipatory activity (FAA) involves temporally restricting unlimited food access (RF) to several hours in the middle of the light cycle, which is a time o...

Davidson, Alec J., and Friedrich K. Stephan. Feedingentrained circadian rhythms in hypophysectomized rats with suprachiasmatic nucleus lesions. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 46): R1376–R1384, 1999.— Several pituitary hormones are important in the regulation of metabolism, and their release appears to be controlled by a circadian clock. Consequently, they may be invo...

Several pituitary hormones are important in the regulation of metabolism, and their release appears to be controlled by a circadian clock. Consequently, they may be involved in feeding-entrained circadian rhythms. Hypophysectomized (Hypox) and sham-operated male Sprague-Dawley rats had access to food for 4 h each day. Food-anticipatory activity (FAA) and core body temperature (Tb) were monitore...

Increases in arousal and activity in anticipation of a meal, termed "food anticipatory activity" (FAA), depend on circadian food-entrainable oscillators (FEOs), whose locations and output signals have long been sought. It is known that ghrelin is secreted in anticipation of a regularly scheduled mealtime. We show here that ghrelin administration increases locomotor activity in nondeprived anima...

Behavioral and physiological rhythms can be entrained by daily restricted feeding (RF), indicating the existence of a food-entrainable oscillator (FEO). One manifestation of the presence of FEO is anticipatory activity to regularly scheduled feeding. In the present study, we tested if intact ghrelin signaling is required for FEO function by studying food anticipatory activity (FAA) in preproghr...

Food availability is a potent environmental cue that directs circadian locomotor activity in rodents. Even though nocturnal rodents prefer to forage at night, daytime food anticipatory activity (FAA) is observed prior to short meals presented at a scheduled time of day. Under this restricted feeding regimen, rodents exhibit two distinct bouts of activity, a nocturnal activity rhythm that is ent...

The existence of food anticipatory activity (FAA) in animals subjected to daily feeding schedules seems to be mediated by a feeding-entrainable oscillator (FEO). Such an FEO may help in anticipating meal time and so optimizing food acquisition and nutrient utilization. In this study we investigated the existence of FAA and whether digestive enzymes, plasma cortisol, hypothalamic NPY and gastroi...

When food availability is restricted, animals adjust their behavior according to the timing of food access. Most rodents, such as rats and mice, and a wide number of other animals express before timed food access a bout of activity, defined as food-anticipatory activity (FAA). One notable exception amongst rodents is the Syrian hamster, a photoperiodic species that is not prone to express FAA. ...

Food anticipatory activity (FAA) is an output of the food-entrained oscillator (FEO), a conspicuous biological clock that expresses when experimental animals are under a restricted food schedule (RFS). We have shown that the liver is entrained by RFS and exhibits an anticipatory response before meal time in its oxidative and energetic state. The present study was designed to determine the mitoc...