Ibotenic acid lesions of the parabrachial nucleus and conditioned taste aversion: further evidence for an associative deficit in rats.
Rats with extensive ibotenic acid lesions centered in the gustatory zone of the pontine parabrachial nucleus (PBN) failed to acquire a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) induced by lithium chloride (LiCl) toxicosis (Experiments 1 and 4). This deficit cannot be explained as an inability to either perceive or process gustatory information because lesioned rats that failed to acquire a CTA readily acquired a conditioned flavor preference (Experiment 2). Similarly, the CTA deficit cannot be attributed to an inability to experience or process visceral input because PBN-lesioned rats that failed to acquire a CTA successfully learned an aversion to a trigeminal stimulus, capsaicin, when paired with LiCl-induced illness (Experiment 3). This pattern of results supports the view that cell bodies within the PBN are essential for the associative processes that govern CTA learning.
Grigson
P S
PS
Department of Behavioral Science, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey 17033, USA. psg6@psu.edu
Reilly
S
S
Shimura
T
T
Norgren
R
R
D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002211:Capsaicin; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D007051:Ibotenic Acid; D018021:Lithium Chloride / Q000633:toxicity; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D011149:Pons / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017552:Solitary Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D014276:Trigeminal Nerve / Q000502:physiology
D007051:Ibotenic Acid; D018021:Lithium Chloride; D002211:Capsaicin