Congener characteristics influence aversion conditioning to alcoholic beverages in rats

Abstract

Experiment 1. 120 male rats ( Rattus norvegicus) received access to either wine, beer or distilled spirits of high or low congener contents prior to an injection of lithium chloride (LiCl). Relative to ingestion-toxin controls (ITCs), aversion effects were greater for wine and beer CSs than for distilled spirits. Aversion effects were similar across congener levels for wine. For beer and distilled spirits, aversion effects were greater, the higher the congener level. Experiment 2. 30 rats received serial access to high and low congener levels of wine, beer or distilled spirits prior to an LiCl injection. Relative to ITCs, aversion effects were greater for wine and beer CSs than for distilled spirits. However, aversion effects were similar for high and low congener levels of each beverage. Post hoc comparisons between experiments showed that aversion effects for low-congener beverages were greater in Experiment 2 than in Experiment 1. For high-congener beverages, aversion effects increased for wine, remained unchanged for beer and decreased for distilled spirits in Experiment 2 relative to Experiment 1. Together, these studies indicated that congener contents of alcoholic beverages reliably influenced aversion conditioning within and across beverage classes. Conditioning with different congener levels of the same beverage CS generally yielded greater aversion effects than did conditioning with a single congener level of the beverage.