Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41166432›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025

Rats pursue food and leisure following the same rational principles.

Raegan S Logue, Ana K Garcia, Brissa A Bejarano, Taylor Fujioka, Mikayla Duke, Riley K Kendall, Andrew M Wikenheiser

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Raegan S LogueDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Ana K GarciaDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Brissa A BejaranoDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Taylor FujiokaDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.ORCID 0009-0007-9601-0850
Mikayla DukeDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Riley K KendallDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Andrew M WikenheiserDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.ORCID 0000-0002-7190-4993

Funding

Understanding spatial representations in rat orbitofrontal cortexR01MH137276 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI Andrew M Wikenheiser · 2024 to 2026
$1.4M
HHS | NIH (NIH) 1R01MH137276NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH137276Whitehall Foundation (Whitehall Foundation, Inc.) 2021-12-045
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Animals in the wild must balance multiple, potentially mutually exclusive goals simultaneously in order to survive. Yet laboratory tests of decision-making often investigate how animals optimize their behavior to achieve a single, well-defined goal, which is often a nutritive reward. Thus, how animals solve multiobjective optimization problems is not well understood. Here, we devised an ethologically inspired decision-making task to examine how rats balance the pursuit of food and nonfood reinforcement. Rats performed a free-choice patch-foraging task, in which they could earn food in one location (food patch) or interact with a rodent play structure in a different location (toy patch). The cost of switching between patches was manipulated by requiring rats to endure a long or short "travel time" penalty during which they were not able to access either patch. Rats devoted a considerable amount of their limited foraging time to patches of both types, showing a small but significant preference for food patches. In accordance with theoretical models of foraging, when the cost of switching patches was high rats chose longer stay durations in both types of patches, suggesting that similar rational principles guided their pursuit of food and nonfood rewards. Examining the within-session dynamics of time allocation revealed that rats showed an early preference for spending time in toy patches that reversed over the course of the session. Satiety manipulations demonstrated that patch residence time decisions were under goal-directed control and responsive to current needs and recent consumption.

Indexed as

Behavior, AnimalDecision MakingFeeding BehaviorFoodAnimalsChoice BehaviorMaleRatsRats, Long-EvansRewarddecision-makingleisuremultiobjective optimizationpatch foragingplay

Identifiers

PMID41166432
PMCPMC12595463

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.