Adolescent female rats recovered from the activity-based anorexia display blunted hedonic responding

Objective As patients with anorexia nervosa tend to "like" palatable tastants less than controls, we set out to model this preclinically by using the taste reactivity test (TRT) to assess hedonic state in rats following weight restoration from a bout of activity-based anorexia (ABA). Method Female rats (n = 31) were surgically implanted with an intraoral catheter, which allowed experimenters to assess baseline TRT to six tastants. Following baseline TRT, animals were either exposed to the activity-based anorexia condition (ABA; 1.5HR chow/ad lib wheel until 25% weight loss), kept sedentary (SED; ad lib chow/locked wheel), given access to running wheels with ad lib chow access (RW; ad lib chow/wheel), or were body weight matched to the ABA group (BWM; restricted chow/locked wheel). Following 25% weight loss, wheels were locked and food returned to ABA rats. Paired RW groups had their wheels locked and paired BWM rats were given ad lib access to food. Animals were given 10 days to recover prior to a second TRT. Videos were analyzed for liking (tongue protrusions) and disliking (gape) behaviors. Results The ABA group displayed a significant within-subject reduction in cumulative lick responses to water and 1 M sucrose. Additionally, we found the SED and ABA group displayed a significant within-subject reduction in cumulative lick responses to .1 M sucrose. Positive hedonic responses did not decline in either the BWM or the RW groups. Discussion The data show a novel phenomenon that a history of ABA results in an anhedonia phenotype that mirrors aspects of AN. Significance statement Patients recovered from anorexia nervosa report anhedonia, or the lack of pleasure in consuming palatable foods. Unfortunately, the biological mechanism underpinning anhedonia in anorexia nervosa is not well understood. The current study assessed hedonic state in adolescent female rats prior to and 10 days recovered following the activity-based anorexia paradigm. Age-matched, running wheel-matched and body weight-matched control groups were also tested at the same time points.