Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that liking and wanting of food rewards can be experimentally dissociated (e.g., Berridge, 1996); this dissociation extends to attenuated neophobia in the present study. Rats tend to eat less of a novel food than a familiar food, a phenomenon called neophobia. The present experiments evaluated whether attenuation of neophobia by prior exposure reflects enhanced liking of the flavor using the Taste Reactivity (TR) test. In Experiment 1, rats given five 10-s TR trials with water or various concentrations of saccharin solution (0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5%) did not show a change in the number of hedonic reactions displayed across trials. However, in a subsequent consumption test from a bottle containing 0.25% saccharin solution, rats with no prior saccharin exposure (group water) consumed less than rats with prior saccharin exposure; that is they displayed neophobia. In Experiment 2, whether rats received five 10-s TR trials with water or 0.5% saccharin solution, they did not display a difference in hedonic reactions to 0.25% saccharin solution in two 5-min TR test trials. These results suggest that the attenuation of neophobia is evidenced as an increase in the tendency to approach a bottle containing the flavored solution (wanting), but not as an enhanced liking of that solution.
Highlights
Recent evidence suggests that liking and wanting of food rewards can be experimentally dissociated (e.g., Berridge, 1996); this dissociation extends to attenuated neophobia in the present study
Following the final Taste Reactivity (TR) test trial, the rats were water deprived over night and presented with a graduated tube containing 0.25% saccharin solution with intake measures taken at 5 min and 24 hr to assess whether prior taste exposure by intraoral infusion would attenuate neophobia when tested by bottle
In Experiment 1, when intraorally infused with various concentrations of saccharin solution across trials, rats did not show any evidence of enhanced hedonic reactions in the TR test
Summary
Reactions are greater (and their attenuation more profound) in consumption tests with higher concentrations of saccharin (Gilley & Franchina, 1985). Following the final TR test trial, the rats were water deprived over night (to ensure approach to the bottle) and presented with a graduated tube containing 0.25% saccharin solution with intake measures taken at 5 min and 24 hr to assess whether prior taste exposure by intraoral infusion would attenuate neophobia when tested by bottle. Neophobia attenuation has been reported to occur within 4–6 hr (Green & Parker, 1975; Nachman and Ashe, 1974) following initial exposure to the taste in a consumption test. The cannula was connected to an infusion pump for delivery of a taste by slipping the exposed portion of the cannula into tightly fitted additional tubing attached to the infusion pump
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