Conditioned taste aversion: Oral and postingestional factors

Abstract

Rats drank a casein solution and were dosed with lithium chloride 1.5 to 6 hr after. The experimental group had the casein solution pumped out of the stomach as they drank and then had the stomach flushed out with water. In the controls, the stomach contents were left intact. While there was the normal decrease in conditioned aversion as the delay between taste and malaise increases, there was no difference between the experimental and control rats in the amount of conditioned aversion. Oral cues account completely for the conditioned taste aversion observed.