The epidermis of wild mammals is occasionally lacerated or punctured and wound care behaviours evolved to keep animals healthy in nature. Communal licking may promote healing affected sites, relieve stress after a traumatic experience, reinforce social bonds among individuals. Yet, there are few reported cases communal free-ranging mammals. We report observations ungulate—free-ranging bison (Bi...

Previous studies have localized a central pattern generator for mastication to the midline pontomedullary reticular formation (RF) based on cortically induced ororhythmic movements. The present study determined whether this same substrate mediated licking responses evoked by more natural stimuli. Licking in the awake rat was initiated either through an appetitive response to sucrose presented i...

Ivermectin is a worldwide-used antiparasitic drug largely administered to cattle as a topical formulation (pour-on). The actual plasma and faecal disposition of pour-on ivermectin in cattle was documented using an original pharmacokinetic model, and taking into account the oral ingestion of the topical drug following physiological licking as a secondary route of exposure. Six pairs of monozygot...

To examine the role of striatal mechanisms in cocaine-induced stereotyped licking, we investigated the acute effects of cocaine on striatal neurons in awake, freely moving rats before and after cocaine administration (0, 5, 10, or 20 mg/kg). Stereotyped licking was induced only by the high dose. Relative to control (saline), cocaine reduced lick duration and concurrently increased interlick int...

The free fatty acids (FFAs), linoleic and oleic acids, commonly found in dietary fats can be detected by rats on the basis of gustatory cues following conditioned taste aversion pairings. FFAs depolarize the membrane potential of isolated rat taste receptor cells by inhibiting delayed rectifying potassium channels. This study examined the licking response of rats to sweet, salt, sour, and bitte...

The glutamate receptors in the nervous system are related to nociceptive response. These receptors include the AMPA (a -amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4isoxazolepropionate) receptor and the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor1). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether novel antagonists of these glutamate receptors could inhibit the nociceptive response in the spinal cord of male Wistar ...