Parameters of the meal pattern in rats: their assessment and physiological significance.
Parameters of the meal pattern in rats were assessed and their physiological significance investigated through a detailed study of continuous graphic recordings over 20 consecutive days in ten rats. Both prandial and diurnal periodicities were examined. The definition of meals, by a criterion of 40 min of non-eating before and after a feeding episode, was validated statistically. The two superimposed periodicities were substantiated by studying night and daytime differences in meal sizes, meal-to-meal intervals, meal size/interval ratios, and post prandial correlations. The results provide new evidence for the role of metabolic and neuroendocrine factors in determining the relationships between meal size and post-meal intervals and their differences during the two parts of the diurnal cycle.
D000818:Animals; D004435:Eating; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007026:Hypothalamic Area, Lateral / Q000502:physiology; D007033:Hypothalamus, Middle / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013997:Time Factors