title: Conditioned aversions to an intravascular odorant.
abstract: The odorant allyl sulfide (essence of garlic) dissolved in a corn oil vehicle was injected into rats to induce a conditioned aversion. In subsequent two-choice drinking tests, rats injected with odorant and lithium chloride, and rats injected with odorant and saline avoided drinking from a water bottle paired with the odorant. Because allyl sulfide and saline injections produced symptoms of malaise, we suspect that the odorant served as its own unconditioned stimulus. Rats injected with vehicle and saline showed no differential behavior. In a second experiment, gas chromatography indicated that allyl sulfide was present on the rat's breath within 3 minutes of injection, and was detectable for up to 5 hours post-injection. We conclude that conditioned aversions can be obtained to an intravascular odorant and that one route by which such odorants reach the nose is the breath.
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000498:Allyl Compounds; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001790:Blood Physiological Phenomena; D001944:Breath Tests; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D005737:Garlic; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013440:Sulfides / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000498:Allyl Compounds; D013440:Sulfides; C038491:allyl sulfide