Electrolytic lesions of the pedunculopontine nucleus disrupt concurrent learned aversion induced by NaCl.
Bilateral electrolytic lesions in the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) impair acquisition of short-term, or concurrent, Taste Aversion Learning (TAL) in rats. This type of TAL is characterized by the daily presentation of two different flavor stimuli at the same time, one associated with simultaneous intragastric administration of an aversive product (hypertonic NaCl) and the other with physiological saline. Sham-lesioned control animals learn this taste discrimination task, but both lesioned animals and control animals learn a long-term, or delayed, TAL task in which each gustatory stimulus is presented individually every other day and the intragastric products, LiCl (0.15 M) and physiological saline, are administered after a 15-min delay. These results are analyzed in the context of the cerebellar circuits involved in learning and in relation to the two TAL modalities described above.
Area de Psicobiología, Departamento de Psicología Experimental y Fisiología del Comportamiento, Universidad de Granada, Campus de Cartuja, Granada 18071, Spain. cristina@platon.ugr.es
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D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004573:Electrolytes / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D011149:Pons / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects
D004573:Electrolytes; D012965:Sodium Chloride