Taste avoidance induced by wheel running: effects of backward pairings and robustness of conditioned taste aversion

• Published in: Physiology & behavior 2004-09, Vol.82 (2), p.303-308
• Main Authors: Salvy, Sarah-Jeanne, Pierce, W.David, Heth, Donald C., Russell, James C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal; Animals; Association Learning - physiology; Avoidance Learning - physiology; Backward conditioning; Biological and medical sciences; Conditioned taste aversion; Conditioning; Conditioning, Classical - physiology; Cues; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Learning. Memory; Male; Motor Activity - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rats; Taste; Time Factors; Wheel running
• ISSN: 0031-9384; 1873-507X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2004.03.017

Rats repeatedly exposed to a distinctive novel solution (conditioned stimulus, CS) followed by the opportunity to run in a wheel subsequently drink less of this solution. Investigations on this phenomenon indicate that wheel running is an effective unconditioned stimulus (US) for establishing conditioned taste aversion (CTA) when using a forward conditioning procedure (i.e., the US-wheel running follows the CS-taste). However, other studies show that wheel running produces reliable preference for a distinctive place when pairings are backward (i.e., the CS-location follows the US-wheel running). One possibility to account for these results is that rewarding aftereffects of wheel running conditioned preference to the CS. The main objective of the present study was to assess the effects of backward conditioning using wheel running as the US and a distinctive taste as the CS. In a between-groups design, two experimental groups [i.e., forward (FC) and backward conditioning (BC)] and two control groups [CS-taste alone (TA) and CS–US unpaired (UNP)] were compared. Results from this experiment indicated that there is less suppression of drinking when a CS-taste followed a bout of wheel running. In fact, rats in the BC group drank more of the paired solution than all the other groups.