Licking rate adaptations to increased mandibular weight in the adult rat.

In this experiment, chronic mandibular loading was used to study adaptation in licking rate. Twenty-four 115-day-old rats were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group received 1.791 +/- 0.083 g submandibular gold implants, and the control group received 0.179 +/- 0.009 g submandibular acrylic implants. The animals were videotaped while lapping on two separate occasions preoperatively, and once every week postoperatively for 12 weeks. The videotapes were used to obtain licking rates for each animal at each taping session. The findings showed that licking rate decreased significantly after surgery for both groups; however, the decrease was similar for both the experimental and control groups. This indicates that licking rate was affected by the experimental design, but not specifically by the weight of the gold implant.