Files
Download Full Text (707 KB)
Description
Michael Brzyski, Psychology, Gillian Falletta, Psychology and Paras Khan, Psychology
Faculty Mentors: Professor Jean DiPirro, Psychology and Professor Alexis Thompson, Psychology
The present study aims to investigate the effects of neuropeptide Y (NPY) on motivation to obtain food by implementing a progressive ratio schedule in an operant task in rats. A one-factor experimental design with repeated measures will be used to test this by assessing the effect of three varying doses of NPY, along with a vehicle control, in 24 Long-Evans (hooded) rats at one-week intervals in a counterbalanced manner. Motivation to seek food will be determined by measuring the “break point,” which is the maximum number of active snout pokes in a one-hour span that the rat is willing to make in order to receive a banana-flavored food pellet. Other measures, including number of inactive head entries and amount of food consumed during the experiment, will be assessed to address potential alternative explanations for the results. The main hypothesis for this study is that NPY will increase the number of active hole snout pokes to obtain a food pellet. Data collection is ongoing.
Publication Date
2020
Recommended Citation
Brzyski, Michael; Falletta, Gillian; and Khan, Paras, "Neuropeptide Y and Motivation to Seek Food in Rats" (2020). Psychology and Social Sciences. 22nd Annual Student Research and Creativity Conference. SUNY Buffalo State.
https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/srcc-sp20-psychsocsci/7
