Alcohol dependence and taste-mediated learning in the rat.
Alcohol dependence and taste-mediated learning were investigated in the rat using intubation procedure to produce dependence, an experimenter-controlled conditioned stimulus (CS) flavor infusion procedure, and behavioral criteria to assign conditioning alcohol dosage. Stress produced by the experimental procedures (e.g., handling, stomach distention) produced flavor aversions, and these aversions were attenuated by small alcohol doses. When stress was reduced and made less associable with the flavor CS, alcohol dependence, by itself, did not protect against the development of alcohol-induced taste aversions. Alcohol withdrawal produced aversions for an associated flavor, but these aversions were attenuated by pairing the flavor with small doses of alcohol. Thus, the relief of alcohol withdrawal illness did not produce preferences for associated flavors, but it did protect against the development of taste aversions.
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D012439:Saccharin / Q000494:pharmacology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000523:psychology; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*
D012439:Saccharin