Control of Feeding in Aplysia With Ad Libitum Access to Food: Presence of Food Increases the Intervals Between Feeding Bouts

The patterning of feeding and the quantity eaten in Aplysia californica with ad libitum food access cannot be explained by the effects of three variables previously shown to control the patterning of consummatory feeding responses and the quantity eaten in animals hand-fed individual meals. Feeding in ad libitum conditions is regulated primarily by varying the time between feeding bouts rather than by modulating bout lengths or the efficacy of consummatory movements within a bout. Aplysia with steady-state food access are in a newly characterized feeding state in which they are relatively unresponsive to food. They eat very little (1–4% of the time), and the quantity eaten is unrelated to the quantity of food in the anterior gut. The steady state can be maintained by the presence of food, even if animals do not contact food. The chemosensory rhinophores signal the presence of food that maintains the steady state. Up to 24 h without food is needed for animals to recover from the inhibition of feeding by st...