Figure 1.

Maternal programming by high-energy dense diets (CAF) primes motivation behavior for food reinforcers.

(A) Maternal programming model. Female Wistar rats were fed for 9 weeks including pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and lactation with standard chow or CAF. Offspring was fed with control diet after weaning until 2 months of age and was trained in the operant training test protocol to diagnosed motivation behavior for food reinforcers. Offspring of dams exposed to CAF diet develops motivation behavior for food reinforcers. (B) Offspring of dams exposed to CAF diet shows major lever responses to work for food during the behavioral test. Adapted from Cruz-Carrillo et al. (2020) with permission. A: Motivated; NA: non-motivated; PR: progressive ratio. Created with BioRender.com.