CALORIC RESTRICTION ACCELERATES VALUE-BASED CHOICE LEARNING IN MALE RATS

Moderate caloric restriction (CR) has been consistently associated with cognitive benefits, particularly in domains such as learning and memory. However, most supporting studies rely on relatively simple behavioral paradigms like the Morris water maze. To examine whether these benefits extend to decision-making processes and whether they differ by sex, we assigned male and female rats to one of two feeding conditions: ad libitum (AL), with unrestricted food access, or CR, limited to 70% of their usual intake. After maintaining these conditions for at least six weeks, animals were tested in a value-based learning task. In this task, rats had to identify, through trial and error, which of two response options was more rewarding (one yielding rewards 80% of the time, the other only 20%). Once an animal made six consecutive optimal choices, the reward contingencies shifted, initiating a new learning episode. Our results showed that CR males acquired the task significantly faster than their AL counterparts, whereas females exhibited no significant differences between feeding conditions. When fully trained, both sexes reached similar levels of maximal performance regardless of diet. These findings suggest that caloric restriction selectively enhances certain aspects of learning in males and reinforce the potential of dietary modulation as a strategy to support cognitive function and healthy aging.