Role of food type in yohimbine- and pellet-priming-induced reinstatement of food seeking

We have recently adapted a reinstatement model, commonly used to study relapse to drugs of abuse, to study the role of stress and anxiety in relapse to palatable food seeking [Ghitza UE, Gray SM, Epstein DH, Rice KC, Shaham Y. The anxiogenic drug yohimbine reinstates palatable food seeking in a rat relapse model: a role of CRF(1) receptors. Neuropsychopharmacology [in press]]. We found that the anxiogenic drug yohimbine, as well as pellet-priming, reinstate food seeking in food restricted rats previously trained to lever press for palatable food pellets (25% fat, 48% carbohydrate). Here, we studied the generality of the effect of yohimbine and pellet priming on reinstatement of food seeking by using three distinct pellet types: non-sucrose carbohydrate (NSC) (5.5% fat, 60% carbohydrate, 4.5% fiber), fiber (0% fat, 0% carbohydrate, 91% fiber) and sucrose (0% fat, 91% carbohydrate, 4% fiber). Rats were placed on a restricted diet (75–80% of daily standard food) and for 9–12 intermittent training days (9 h/day, every other day) lever-pressed for the food pellets under a fixed ratio-1 (20-s timeout) reinforcement schedule. Subsequently, the rats were given 9–10 daily extinction sessions during which lever-presses were not reinforced, and were then injected with yohimbine (0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg/kg, i.p.) or given a single food pellet to induce reinstatement of food seeking. Yohimbine reinstated food seeking previously reinforced by NSC and sucrose pellets, but had a minimal effect on food seeking in rats previously trained to lever press for fiber pellets. Pellet priming produced a greater degree of reinstatement of lever pressing in rats previously trained on NSC pellets than in rats trained on fiber or sucrose pellets. Results suggest that the magnitude of the effect of yohimbine and pellet priming on reinstatement of food seeking depends in part on the composition of the food pellets used during training.