A New Look at an Old Task: Advantages and Uses of Sickness-Conditioned Learning in Day-Old Chicks

• Published in: Pharmacology, biochemistry and behavior biochemistry and behavior, 1998-06, Vol.60 (2), p.423-430
• Main Authors: Barber, Teresa A., Klunk, Amanda M., Howorth, Pamela D., Pearlman, Melanie F., Patrick, Krista E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal; Animals; Animals, Newborn - physiology; Aversion; Avoidance Learning - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Central Nervous System Depressants - administration & dosage; Central Nervous System Depressants - pharmacology; Chickens - physiology; Chicks; Conditioning; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Injections, Intraperitoneal; Learning - physiology; Learning. Memory; Lithium chloride; Lithium Chloride - administration & dosage; Lithium Chloride - pharmacology; Male; Memory; Memory - drug effects; One-trial learning; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reinforcement (Psychology); Sickness-conditioned learning; Taste - drug effects
• ISSN: 0091-3057; 1873-5177
• DOI: 10.1016/S0091-3057(97)00597-2

In sickness-conditioned learning, animals become ill after sampling a new substance and develop an aversion that is expressed as avoidance of that substance in subsequent presentations. We examined the parameters of a one-trial, nongustatory, sickness-conditioned learning task in day-old chicks. Chicks pecked a bead and were made ill by IP injection of lithium chloride (LiCl). Both 0.5 and 1.0 M LiCl (0.1 ml) produced reliable avoidance at test. Chicks injected with LiCl between 15 and 45 min after training avoided the bead at test, whereas those injected within 5 or 10 min or more than 45 min after training did not. Avoidance was present until 24 h posttraining and absent after 48 h. Therefore, robust learning of the sickness-conditioned learning task occurs in one trial without the need for gustatory cues, and memory for the task lasts at least 24 h. Uses of this task to study memory formation in the day-old chick are discussed.