Sex Differences in Sucrose Sensitization
Abstract
Women have a greater prevalence of eating-related disorders than men and are thought to experience stronger cravings for sweet foods. In rodents, female-biased sex differences have been identified in the preference and motivation for highly palatable sweet foods. Investigations using a paradigm of locomotor sensitization – a behavioural index of addiction-related neuroadaptations – have mainly focused on male subjects in the evaluation of highly palatable sweet foods. The present thesis explored sex differences and context- related effects of sucrose sensitization (0.3 M) and cross-sensitization with the D2/D3 agonist, quinpirole (0.5 mg/kg). Sucrose sensitization was identified in adult female rats but not adult male rats. Pre-exposure to sucrose enhanced quinpirole sensitization in both female and male rats. In female rats, context-related enhancements of sensitization were observed for quinpirole sensitization but not sucrose sensitization. Future investigations of sucrose sensitization should explore dose-related effects, concurrent cross-sensitization paradigms, water-restriction confounds, and context-pairing consistency.