| Dr. Terry Belke
B.A. (Alberta), M.A., Ph.D. (Harvard) Associate Professor of Psychology Office: Crabtree 206 Telephone: (506) 364-2459 E-mail: tbelke@mta.ca |
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Courses taught:
Psychology 1001: Introduction to Psychology I
Psychology 2111: Drugs and Behavior
Psychology 3111: Conditioning
Psychology 4111: Advanced Topics in Conditioning
Research Interests:
My research program involves an investigation of the environmental and pharmacological factors that affect the reinforcing value of running. This line of inquiry is relevant to an understanding of phenomena such as activity-based anorexia and the putative "addictive" properties of exercise. The long term objectives of the program are:
1) to investigate the properties of running as a reinforcer to determine the extent to which running shares properties with other reinforcers such as food and water.
2) to investigate the interaction between motivation to eat and motivation to run.
3) to investigate the pharmacological basis of the reinforcing properties of running using a conditioning paradigm to dissociate motor and motivational effects of opiate and dopamine agonists and antagonists.
Phenomena such as activity-based anorexia and the runner's high relate to environmental and pharmacological bases of motivation to run. Understanding the reinforcing properties of running may inform treatment of human anorexias, particularly those cases involving hyperactivity. Drugs that alter the reinforcement effectiveness of wheel running are also expected to reduce (or increase) excessive running during activity anorexia. One implication is that drugs that decrease the motivation for physical activity during food restriction may be helpful in modifying the activity-anorexia cycle (decreasing the excessive activity and increasing food intake). Second, understanding the pharmacological basis of the reinforcing properties of running will inform us about conditions conducive to exercise. Getting people to become more active for health reasons is the objective of several advertising campaigns. Learning more about the pharmacology underlying the rewarding effects of running may lead to more effective means to achieve the goal of these campaigns.
Recent Publications:
Belke, T. W., Pierce, W. D., & Jensen, K. (2004). Effect of short-term prefeeding and body weight on wheel running and responding reinforced by the opportunity to run in a wheel. Behavioural Processes, 67, 1-10.
Belke, T. W. (2004) Responding for sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement: effect of body weight manipulation Behavioural Processes, 65, 189-199.
Belke, T. W. and Hancock, S. D. (2003). Responding for sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement: Effects of sucrose concentration and wheel-running reinforcer duration. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 79, 243-265.
Broderick, T. L., Belke, T. W. , & Driedzic, W. R. (2002) Effects of chronic caloric restriction on mitochondrial respiration in the ischemic reperfused rat heart. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry., 233 (1-2), 199-225
Belke, T. W. and Belliveau J. (2001). Herrnstein's matching law describes choice on concurrent variable-interval schedules of wheel-running reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 75, 299-310.
Belke, T. W. and Dunbar, M. (2001). Effect of cocaine on fixed-interval responding reinforced by the opportunity to run. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 75, 77-91
Broderick T.L., Driedzic W. R., Gillis, M., Jacob J., and Belke T. (2001). Effects of chronic food restriction and exercise training on recovery of cardiac function following ischemia. Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences 56(A), B33-B37.
Belke, T.W. (2000). Differences in responding for sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement: Excitatory stimulus effects or inhibitory after-effects? Animal Learning & Behavior, 28, 332-343.
Belke, T. W. and Kwan, T. Y. (2000). The effect of changes in availability on food selection at different levels of deprivation. The Psychological Record, 50, 529-541.
Belke, T. W. (2000). Studies of wheel-running reinforcement: Parameters from Herrnstein's (1970) response-strength equation vary with schedule order Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 73, 319-331.
Kwan, T. Y., Belke, T. W., and Enta, T. (2000). Sex differences in the anatomical distribution of melanocytic nevi in Canadian Hutterite children. Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery, 4(2), 58-62.
Belke, T. W. (2000). Varying wheel-running reinforcer duration within a session: Effect on the revolution-postreinforcement pause relation. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 73, 225-239.
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