Table 2.
Summary of reward-related behaviors altered by wheel running in rodents.
| Species | Sex | Duration of access to wheel | Effect on behavior | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rat (Wistar) | Female and male | 22 weeks unrestricted access | Food restriction increased wheel running, while increased access to food decreased wheel running | Finger (1951) |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Male | 10 min per day | Rats lever-pressed for access to running wheels | Kagan and Berkun (1954) |
| Rat (albino from Holtzman Research) | Male | Up to 14 days, unrestricted access | Food was ignored upon presentation of wheel, resulting in self-starvation | Routtenberg and Kuznesof (1967) |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Male | Varied | Rats lever-pressed for access to running wheels | Collier and Hirsch (1971) |
| Rat (Long Evans) | Male | 2 h per day, 5 days/week for 8 weeks | Increased brain catecholamine levels related to running, weight loss, and hyperphagia | de Castro and Duncan (1985) |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Female and male | Varied | Food deprivation increased lever pressing for access to a running wheel; acute wheel exposure during food deprivation decreased responding for food reward | Pierce et al. (1986) |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Male | Up to 70% of starting body-weight, or 20 days unrestricted access | Activity-induced anorexia (and death) was reduced by propylene glycol but not ethanol | Spigelman et al. (1991) |
| Rat (Long–Evans) | Female | Varied | Rats lever-pressed for access to running wheels | Iversen (1993) |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Male | Alternating access | Wheel access decreased oral amphetamine intake | Kanarek et al. (1995) |
| Rat (Wistar) | Male | Varied | Rats lever-pressed for access to running wheels; running behavior was dependent on duration of opportunity to run | Belke (1997) |
| Rat (Lewis and Fischer) | 30 days, unrestricted Access | Addiction-prone rats exhibited higher levels of running compared to non-addiction-prone rats | Werme et al. (1999) | |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Male | 2-h controlled access on alternating days, over ~2 weeks | Wheel running induced conditioned place preference, which was reversible by the opioid antagonist naloxone | Lett et al. (2001) |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Male | 2-h controlled access on alternating days, over ~2 weeks | Wheel running blocked the ability of morphine to produce conditioned place preference | Lett et al. (2002) |
| Rat (Long Evans) | Female | 8 weeks unrestricted access | Wheel running decreased breakpoint on a progressive ratio schedule for cocaine self-administration | Cosgrove et al. (2002) |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Male | 24 days, 2-h per day or unrestricted access | Escalated running with unrestricted access | Lattanzio and Eikelboom (2003) |
| Rat (Wistar) | Male | Varied | Rats developed conditioned place preference to context associated with wheel | Belke and Wagner (2005) |
| Rat (Sprague–Dawley) | Male | 25 days | Wheel access suppressed sucrose and food intake | Satvat and Eikelboom (2006) |
| Rat (Long Evans) | Female | 8 weeks unrestricted access | Wheel running increased conditioned place preference to cocaine | Smith et al. (2008) |
| Rat (Fischer 344) | Male | 2 and 6 weeks | Increased conditioned place preference after 6 weeks of wheel running | Greenwood et al. (2011) |
| Mice (BALB-c) | Male | 90 min | Wheel running induced c-Fos in nucleus accumbens (core) | Vargas-Perez et al. (2003) |
| Mice (C57BL/6J) | Female | Varied | Wheel running increased in the absence of ethanol | Ozburn et al. (2008) |
| Mice (BALB-c-type and D2L receptor-deficient) | Male | 30 min/day for 20 days | Wheel running engages dopamine and opioid reward systems; motivational state affects ability of wheel to engage these systems | Vargas-Perez et al. (2004), Vargas-Perez et al. (2008) |
| Syrian hamster | Male | Up to 35 days | Amount of wheel running was positively correlated with self-administration of testosterone, which has reinforcing properties | Wood (2002) |