Individual differences in non-regulatory ingestive behavior and catecholamine systems.

Animals that eat and/or drink in response to electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus (ESLH-pos) are more responsive to both schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) tests and a series of amphetamine (AMPH) injections than animals that do not exhibit these behaviors (ESLH-neg). Moreover, prior exposure to the behaviorally activating SIP experience, or to AMPH, permanently transformed the ESLH-neg animals into animals that reliably ate or drank during ESLH. Prior treatment with AMPH also increases the water consumed during subsequent SIP tests. Thus, initial of induced differences in sensitivity to activating experiences can determine behavioral propensities.