Uterine position and conditioned taste aversion.

Abstract

Three experiments were designed to determine the influence of uterine position on the performance of female rats in a conditioned taste aversion paradigm. The first and second experiments confirmed a differential behavioral response by males and females during acquisition and extinction of the conditioned taste aversion. However, no differences were found between females that had caudal male littermates in utero (MF) and females that had no caudal male littermates (FF). In the third experiment, in which testosterone was administered to females throughout testing, MF females showed an increased sensitivity to testosterone and a more prolonged rate of extinction than FF females. Exposure to testosterone during prenatal development heightened postnatal responsiveness to testosterone in female rats. The results are discussed in terms of the organizational and activational effects of testosterone on behavior in a conditioned taste aversion situation.