Abstract
Normal rats and rats lacking gustatory neocortex were compared in the discriminative acquisition of aversions to either a.146 M sucrose solution or a.153 M sodium chloride solution. Training involved repeated pairings of one taste solution with injections of apomorphine hydrochloride (20 mg/kg IP) during restricted periods of fluid access. Balanced, nonpaired presentations of the other taste solution and water were presented also. Rats lacking gustatory neocortex acquired discriminatively specific aversions to sucrose and sodium chloride, but compared to normal control subjects they acquired the aversions more slowly and they generalized more to the unpaired taste solution. The results confirm earlier suggestions that gustatory neocortex lesions disrupt the associative salience of specific taste stimuli. In addition, these results also clarify the nature of the deficit by showing that it appears to be relative rather than absolute. That is, the brain lesion does not prevent totally the acquisition of aversions to certain taste stimuli as suggested by earlier work. Rather, it interferes substantially with the efficiency and discriminative precision of aversion learning.
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Ouellet, J. V., Kower, H. S., & Braun, J. J. Failure to retain a learned taste aversion after lesions of the gustatory neocortex. Paper presented at the meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Sacramento, April 1975.
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The research was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Grant NS-16616 to J. Braun. We thank Barbara Stinchfield for preparing the manuscript.
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Kiefer, S.W., Braun, J.J. Acquisition of taste avoidance habits in rats lacking gustatory neocortex. Psychobiology 7, 245–250 (1979). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326633
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326633