title: Reacquisition, reinstatement, and renewal of a conditioned taste aversion in preweanling rats.
abstract: Pavlovian extinction is defined as a reduction of the conditioned response (CR) as a consequence of repeated and nonreinforced presentations of the conditioned stimulus (CS). This phenomenon has been explained through two nonexclusive associative hypotheses. One of them proposes that the CS-unconditioned stimulus (US) association is weakened during extinction, while the second one explains extinction by the formation of a new inhibitory association between the CS, and the US (CS-noUS) which competes with the excitatory one acquired at conditioning (CS-US). Research supporting this second hypothesis is based on the demonstration that the CR can be recovered after extinction. However, in preweanling rats, renewal, and reinstatement treatments have failed to recover a conditioned fear response, suggesting that extinction during this ontogenetic period may involve erasure of the CS-US association. The goal of the present study was to explore whether this conclusion can be extended to the extinction of a conditioned taste aversion by evaluating infant rats in three different procedures (reacquisition, ABA renewal, and reinstatement). The results are consistent with the idea that extinction of a taste aversive memory during infancy involves relearning about the relationship between the CS and the US, with the initial CS-US association remaining relatively intact. Extinction of a taste aversive memory and a fear memory may involve different biological mechanisms during infancy. The conclusion that the only psychological mechanism for extinction during infancy is unlearning should be confined to a particular type of memory.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación Médica M. y M. Ferreyra, INIMEC-CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Friuli 2434, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Revillo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Castello
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Paglini
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arias
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: extinction; infant; rat; taste aversion