Delta EEG Activity in Left Orbitofrontal Cortex in Rats Related to Food Reward and Craving

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is particularly important for the neural representation of reward value. Previous studies indicated that electroencephalogram (EEG) activity in the OFC was involved in drug administration and withdrawal. The present study investigated EEG activity in the OFC in rats during the development of food reward and craving. Two environments were used separately for control and food-related EEG recordings. In the food-related environment rats were first trained to eat chocolate peanuts; then they either had no access to this food, but could see and smell it (craving trials), or had free access to this food (reward trials). The EEG in the left OFC was recorded during these trials. We showed that, in the food-related environment the EEG activity peaking in the delta band (2-4 Hz) was significantly correlated with the stimulus, increasing during food reward and decreasing during food craving when compared with that in the control environment. Our data suggests that EEG activity in the OFC can be altered by food reward; moreover, delta rhythm in this region could be used as an index monitoring changed signal underlying this reward.