Decreased rates of operant food self-administration are associated with reward deficits in high-fat feeding mice.

Purpose Highly palatable foods behave as appetitive reinforcers and tend to be consumed compulsively. Nevertheless, the motivation for this kind of diets in experimental diet-induced obesity models has not been well established. Our hypothesis is that obesity caused by a regular consumption of high-fat diet (HFD) occurs concomitantly with the inhibition of food reward. The ultimate goal of our study was to further analyze the extent to which the perception of food as an appetitive reinforcer is a necessary condition for obesity.