The Effects of Environmental Conditions on Activity, Feeding, and Body Weight in Male and Female Adolescent Rats

Abstract

Excessive body weight, particularly in children, is a growing concern in the United States and around the world. Body weight is affected by feeding behavior and physical activity. Environmental factors affect feeding behaviors and physical activity; therefore, environment is an important influence on body weight. Three separate experiments examined the behavioral effects of environmental enrichments on feeding, activity, and body weight. For the first two experiments, subjects were 36 adolescent, male (Experiment I) and 36 adolescent female (Experiment II) Sprague-Dawley rats. Experiment III examined the behavioral effects of enrichment on 24 male and 24 female adolescent Sprague-Dawley rats. Responses to environmental enrichment included: body weight (BW), Body Mass Index score (BMI), Lee Index score (LI), consumption of standard rat chow, Oreo TM cookies, and Lays TM potato chips, and physical activity (PA) in the animal's home cage (HCA) and in an open field (OF). [truncated]

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 31, 2006
Accession Number
AD1014237

Entities

People

  • Joshua L. Tomchesson

Organizations

  • Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Body Weight
  • Brain
  • Cells
  • Digestive System Processes
  • Health Services
  • Human Behavior
  • Information Processing
  • Medical Personnel
  • Psychiatry
  • Psychology

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Exercise and Sports Science.
  • Gender and Food Studies
  • Neuroscience