Taste quality and extinction of a conditioned taste aversion in rats

Rats (Rattus norvegicus) that received a taste cue (saccharin, saline, quinine, or sucrose) paired with a lithium chloride (LiCl) injection displayed a robust decrease in consumption of that taste, relative to controls that had the taste unpaired with LiCl. Consumption of the paired taste increased with each nonreinforced presentation (i.e., extinction). After asymptotic extinction, rats that had had a 0.1% saccharin cue paired with LiCl consumed less of the saccharin solution than did controls. A similar data pattern was observed with a 10% sucrose solution. These results are consistent with the view that some aspect of the excitatory CS-US association remains after extinction. On the other hand, rats that had a bitter (0.005% or 0.001% quinine) or salty (1% or 0.5% saline) solution paired with LiCl drank similar amounts of the fluid as controls after asymptotic extinction treatment. Together, these experiments suggest that a taste that is either sweet or preferred is required in order to demonstrate the chronic decrease in fluid consumption after extinction treatment. The data suggest that the conditioning experience prevents the later development of a preference for the sweet taste, rather than there being a retained aversion that suppresses fluid consumption.     

Effects of CS amount on conditioned taste aversion at different CS-US intervals

Previous studies on the effect of CS amount/duration on the conditioning of taste aversion have reported that animals having greater contact with the CS acquire greater aversion. These findings appear to contradict studies of CS preexposure, which show that greater contact with the CS results in less aversion. In the present research, the effect of CS amount was shown to depend on the CS-US interval. Thus, a 10-ml CS (0.15% saccharin) at 3- and 9-h CS-US intervals produced less aversion than a 1-ml CS, but there was no significant effect of CS amount at a 30-min interval. These results suggest a two-process interpretation of the delay gradient in conditioned taste aversion: one process (learned safety) is dominant at relatively long CS-US intervals, and a different process becomes dominant at short intervals.     

Independence of neophobia and taste aversion learning

Animals were presented with (1) one solution which differed from that of the test solution, (2) a series of distinctly flavored solutions whose flavors differed from that of the test solution, or (3) with a flavored solution whose flavor was the same as that of the test solution. When animals received the solution whose flavor was the same as that of the test solution prior to a test for neophobia and prior to a conditioning trial, neophobia was reduced and aversions were weakened. However, when animals received a solution or a series of solutions whose flavors differed from that of the test solution, neophobia was reduced but conditioned aversions were unaffected. Presentations of solutions that differed from the test solution following aversion formation left the association between the taste of the test solution and the effects of the aversion-inducing treatment intact. In a final experiment it was discovered that neophobia was reduced as much when animals drank solutions whose flavors changed every third day as when they drank the same solution throughout testing.     

Taste aversion learning and schedule-induced polydipsia in rats

Experiment 1 sought to determine whether schedule-induced drinking could be abolished by means of a taste aversion. Polydipsic rats were given access to a .4% saccharin solution while they were exposed to an intermittent food schedule. Immediately after the session, they received an intraperitoneal injection of either lithium chloride or sodium chloride. Following a recovery day with water in the experimental chamber, the animals were again exposed to the saccharin solution. The poisoned animals (lithium chloride) drank very little saccharin compared to the control animals (sodium chloride), indicating that they had learned a taste aversion in only one conditioning trial. Experiment 2 established that polydipsic rats can learn a taste aversion despite a long delay between schedule-induced saccharin consumption and poisoning, and that the delay gradient displayed by polydipsic rats is similar to that observed in thirst-motivated rats.     

Differential inflation with short and long CS-US intervals: Evidence of a nonassociative process in long-delay taste avoidance

Three experiments were performed to investigate the learning process underlying the phenomenon of long-delay taste conditioning. An associative model views taste avoidance as due to a conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) associative structure, despite the long interval interposed between the flavor and illness. A nonassociative account of this avoidance behavior posits that avoidance stems from the interaction of two nonassociative processes: habituation of neophobic avoidance to a novel taste, and the poison-induced dishabituation of this process. A postconditioning inflation manipulation was used to discriminate between these two views. It has been demonstrated that enhanced responding with a US inflation manipulation depends, in part, on a previously conditioned association. Therefore, if long-delay taste avoidance arises from nonassociative processes, an inflation manipulation should not affect conditional responding. Experiment 1 demonstrated a delay of reinforcement effect, enhanced avoidance of saccharin in the immediate/inflation group, and no effect of inflation in the delay group and sham controls. Experiment 2 revealed that this differential effect of inflation is not due to absolute differences in the strength of the avoidance response. In Experiment 3, we investigated a potential associative learning mechanism that could account for the differential inflation effect. Together, the present results support the various predictions of a nonassociative account of long-delay taste avoidance.     

Running-based pica and taste avoidance in rats

Running in an activity wheel generates pica behavior (kaolin clay intake) in rats. Wheel running also results in Pavlovian conditioned avoidance of the taste solution consumed immediately before the running. Since pica has been considered a behavioral marker of nausea in rats, these findings suggest that wheel running induces nausea, which is the underlying physiological state for establishing taste avoidance. This article reports a replication of running-based pica in rats (Experiment 1) and concurrent demonstrations of running-based pica and taste avoidance in the same animals (Experiments 2 and 3). Also shown is that pica does not alleviate running-based taste avoidance (Experiment 3). Another finding is that pica is generated by a nausea-inducing lithium chloride injection but not by a pain-inducing hypertonic saline injection (Experiment 4). These results, when taken together, support the hypothesis that pica behavior generated by wheel running reflects nausea in rats.     

Conditioned inhibition in taste aversion learning: Testing methodology and empirical status

Learning & Behavior - Several assays were used in assessing conditioned inhibition within a taste aversion procedure. Following Pavlovian conditioned inhibition training, in which one taste was...     

Illness-induced taste aversion under states of deprivation and satiation

A taste aversion to saccharin was induced under conditions of satiation or deprivation. Subsequent testing occurred under the same or opposite conditions. A preference test yielded significant drug-placebo effects only under similar training and testing conditions. Ss trained and tested under satiation produced the greatest drug-placebo differences. The data are discussed in terms of state dependency and the procedures used to induce and measure the taste aversion.     

Impact of brief or extended extinction of a taste aversion on inhibitory associations: Evidence from summation,retardation, and preference tests

In five conditioned taste aversion experiments with rats, summation, retardation, and preference tests were used to assess the effects of extinguishing a conditioned saccharin aversion for three or nine trials. In Experiment 1, a summation test showed that saccharin aversion extinguished over nine trials reduced the aversion to a merely conditioned flavor (vinegar), whereas three saccharin extinction trials did not subsequently influence the vinegar aversion. Experiment 2 clarified that result, with unpaired controls equated on flavor exposure prior to testing; the results with those controls suggested that the flavor extinguished for nine trials produced generalization decrement during testing. In Experiment 3, the saccharin aversion reconditioned slowly after nine extinction trials, but not after three. Those results suggested the development of latent inhibition after more than three extinction trials. Preference tests comparing saccharin consumption with a concurrently available fluid (water in Experiment 4, saline in Experiment 5) showed that the preference for saccharin was greater after nine extinction trials than after three. However, saccharin preference after nine extinction trials was not greater, as compared with that for either latent inhibition controls (Experiments 4 and 5) or a control given equated exposures to saccharin and trained to drink saline at a high rate prior to testing (Experiment 5). Concerns about whether conditioned inhibition has been demonstrated in any flavor aversion procedure are discussed. Our findings help explain both successes and failures in demonstrating postextinction conditioned response recovery effects reported in the conditioned taste aversion literature, and they can be explained using a memory interference account.     

Matching and oddity conditional discrimination in the goldfish as avoidance responses: Evidence for conceptual avoidance learning

Goldfish, trained in the avoidance shuttlebox with a variant of the linear discrimination procedure, learned to conditionally discriminate between color signals, both for the matching (M) and oddity (O) criterion forms. Transfer to assess the possibility of concept learning was also tested. In original learning, oddity-trained groups learned faster and reached higher conditional discrimination performance levels than did matching-trained groups. In transfer, various groups were tested with the same criterion (MM or OO) or a shifted criterion (MO or OM), and half of each group retained the same color signals and the remaining half had its color signals changed in transfer. Groups with the same criterion in original learning and transfer (MM or OO), regardless of signal colors, showed comparable positive transfer. Groups with their criterion shifted between original learning and transfer (MO or OM) showed comparable negative transfer, regardless of signal colors. Since both positive- and negative-transfer effects were independent of signal colors, it is clear that what was learned for one set of signal colors transferred to at least one other signal-color set. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that goldfish learned the original conditional discrimination at a conceptual level, and learned about the general matching or oddity relationships between colors, rather than about a specific set of colors.     

Circadian-temporal context and latent inhibition of conditioned taste aversion: Effect of restriction in the intake of the conditioned taste stimulus

Latent inhibition of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is sensitive to changes in the temporal context. A change in the time of day of conditioning with respect to the time of day of the preexposure can disrupt the latent inhibition. This contextual change in the time of day may reveal a temporal specificity of latent inhibition. The optimum procedure to induce this temporal specificity is not well established. For example, it has been shown that a long period of habituation to temporal contexts is one factor that can determine the effect. However, the experimental conditions on the conditioning day that facilitate this phenomenon are unknown. The aim of this study is to elucidate whether a restriction in the intake of the conditioned taste stimulus affects the temporal specificity of latent inhibition. Two main groups of Wistar rats were tested in a latent inhibition of CTA paradigm, in which the temporal specificity of this phenomenon was analyzed by a change in the time of day of conditioning. The intake of the taste stimulus was restricted in the conditioning day in one of the groups, but this restriction was not applied in the other group. The results indicated temporal specificity of latent inhibition only in the group without restriction, but not in the group with limitation in the intake of the taste stimulus during conditioning. These findings can help to elucidate the characteristics of the procedure to induce temporal specificity of latent inhibition.     

The basic tastants in aversion conditioning: Evidence for sensory preconditioning and not potentiation

In Experiment 1, a potentiation paradigm was used to test the relative influence of odor and taste with two 2 basic tastants (i.e., salt and sweet) in conditioned aversion learning. Experiment 1 showed that aversions to tastants (salt or sweet presented in a manner by which it could be tasted) were established only in subjects trained with the tastant, not the odor (i.e., salt or sweet presented in a manner by which it could not be tasted). Experiment 2 demonstrated, with a sensory preconditioning procedure, that the expression of an aversion to tastants was dependent on previous tastant experience prior to odor aversion training. These results suggest that while subjects can smell salt and sweet solutions, these odors are neither sufficient nor necessary for the expression of a conditioned tastant aversion.     

The UCS preexposure effect in taste aversion learning: Tolerance and blocking are drug specific

Following drug preexposure, rats were given taste aversion conditioning in either the preexposure environment or the home cage. For animals preexposed to LiCl, only the subjects conditioned in the preexposure environment showed the typical UCS preexposure effect, that is, an attenuated aversion, an effect consistent with a blocking interpretation of the LiCl-induced preexposure effect. On the other hand, all rats preexposed to morphine displayed attenuated aversions, independent of the preexposure and conditioning environments, an effect consistent with a pharmacological tolerance explanation of the UCS preexposure effect to morphine. The specific mechanism underlying the drug-induced attenuation appears to be drug-dependent.     

Long-term retention of a conditioned taste aversion in preweanling and adult rats

The retention and extinction of a conditioned taste aversion after either short (6-day) or long (60-day) intervals was investigated in preweanling (18-day-old) and adult rats. Taste-only and illness-only control conditions were employed, as were variations in the concentration of the US (holding LiCl amount constant). Results indicated that after the short retention interval, retention of the taste aversion was equivalent for both ages. After the long interval, however, the 18-day-old rats exhibited significantly weaker taste aversion than their adult counterparts— infantile amnesia. Manipulation of US concentration had no effect on the magnitude of the taste aversions for either age or retention interval. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for infantile amnesia and general laws of learning.     

Variations in the retention of taste aversions: Evidence for retrieval competition

In six experiments, we examined taste and compound taste/taste aversions at different retention intervals. In Experiment 1, saccharin aversions were significantly weaker 1 day after conditioning than 21 days after conditioning. This effect was determined not to be caused by the aftereffects of illness or differential hydration. With the use of a saccharin/denatonium compound, Experiment 2 demonstrated overshadowing of a denatonium aversion at 21- and 1-day retention intervals, Experiment 4 showed a potentiated saccharin aversion only at the 21-day retention interval, and both Experiments 2 and 4 revealed that the aversion of the taste-only controls was stronger at the later retention interval. Experiments 3 and 5 demonstrated that the differences at the two retention intervals were not caused by unconditioned changes in taste preference. Finally, Experiment 6 showed that extinction of the conditioning environment prior to testing results in stronger saccharin aversions than occur in nonextinguished controls. Collectively, these experiments suggest that testing within a 24-h period after conditioning will result in significantly weaker taste aversions. Also, these results support a retrieval-competition explanation that may account for the weakened aversions at the 1-day testing interval of both groups conditioned to single elements and those conditioned to compounds.     

The effect of drug habituation before and after taste aversion learning in rats

In Experiment I, rats received eight habituation injections of either lithium chloride (LiCl) or sodium chloride (NaCl), then two aversion training trials in which access to saccharin solution was followed by LiCl injections, and finally eight extinction trials with saccharin but no injections. The rats habituated to LiCl showed less aversion to saccharin during training and extinction. In Experiment II, rats received two aversion training trials, then eight habituation trials to either LiCl or NaCl, then eight extinction trials, four more aversion training trials, and eight more extinction trials. The rats habituated to LiCl did not differ during the first extinction period from those habituated to NaCl, but showed less aversion to saccharin during the second training and extinction periods. Consequently, habituation to LiCl reduces the learning of an aversion to saccharin but does not reduce the performance of a previously learned aversion.     

两类风险过程调节系数的近似

考虑了含两个类的风险过程,首先介绍了复合Poisson分布的一些性质,在此基础上给出了含两个类的风险过程调节系数的近似。