Immediate and delayed reinforcers for flavor preferences in rats

doi:10.1016/0023-9690(75)90037-5

Learning and Motivation

Volume 6, Issue 1, February 1975, Pages 91-100

https://doi.org/10.1016/0023-9690(75)90037-5 Get rights and content

Abstract

When rats received, on alternate days, one flavored saccharin solution for 5 min and a differently-flavored saccharin solution for 60 min, they showed no consistent preference between the flavors. On the other hand, when they received one flavor in a concentrated saccharin solution and a different flavor in a dilute one, they preferred the first flavor in tests with saccharin concentration held constant; also, rats learned to prefer a flavor immediately followed by a concentrated saccharin solution to one followed by nothing. They showed no consistent preference, however, between a flavor followed 30 min later by a concentrated saccharin solution and one followed by nothing; but they learned to prefer a flavor followed 30 min later by a dextrose solution to one followed by nothing. In other words, consummatory responding did not reinforce flavor preference, sweet taste did so with immediate but not delayed reinforcement, and nutrition did so even with delayed reinforcement.

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Cited by (179)

The effect of multisensory context and experience on flavor preference decisions in rats
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Flavor is perceived through multiple senses, including gustation and olfaction. Previous studies have shown that different sensory qualities that make up flavor are integrated to inform perceptual judgements. Psychophysical work in humans further suggests a prominent role for congruency (i.e., the learnt correspondence between taste and odor components of flavor through eating experience) in shaping multisensory interactions underlying perceptual judgments of flavor. However, eating experience cannot be controlled in humans, and depending on the type of judgement, these studies yielded mixed findings. Here, we used rats to test how experimentally-controlled experience with specific flavor mixtures (Odor_A+Taste_A and Odor_B +Taste_B) from weaning to adulthood affects subsequent flavor preference judgements in a series of two-bottle preference tests. In unisensory conditions, animals made odor or taste preference decisions (i.e., Odor_A versus Odor_B and Taste_A versus Taste_B, respectively). In multisensory conditions, animals made identical decisions, but the addition of the other modality rendered one solution congruent; the other one incongruent (e.g., Odor_A+Taste_A versus Odor_B+Taste_A). The results show that animals effectively learned congruency associations between the taste and smell components of experienced flavor mixtures. Comparing unisensory and multisensory conditions revealed no systematic effect of congruency on the magnitude of flavor preference, but preferences were less variable in multisensory compared to unisensory conditions. Results from a second group of naïve animals further demonstrate that increased reliability of preference judgements in multisensory conditions was independent of experience.
Effects of food deprivation on conditioned orthonasal olfactory preferences with caloric and non-caloric reinforcers
2024, Behavioural Processes
Three experiments were conducted to investigate Conditioned Olfactory Preferences using orthonasal inhalation, which is a less explored perceptual pathway compared to retronasal inhalation. In these experiments, odors were impregnated onto plastic disks to prevent the subjects from consuming or tasting them. The reinforcers used were a sucrose solution (Caloric groups) and a saccharin solution (Non-Caloric groups). The influence of nutritional deprivation was analyzed, with unrestricted access to food throughout the procedure in Experiment 1, food restriction during the conditioning phase in Experiment 2, and limited access to food during the test phase in Experiment 3. The results revealed conditioned preferences using both sucrose and saccharin as reinforcers. Furthermore, dietary restriction reduced the conditioned preference induced by saccharin, but not the preference induced by sucrose. These findings are discussed in light of the potential differences between orthonasal and retronasal presentation of odors during conditioning.
Rats learn to prefer the late-consumed flavor over the early-consumed flavor in a multi-flavored meal paired with oral glucose and corn oil
2022, Physiology and Behavior
Conditioned flavor preference (CFP) is established by association: where a neutral flavor (conditioned stimulus, CS) is paired with orosensory and post-ingestive components of nutrients, including sugar and fat (unconditioned stimulus, US). A previous study reported that rats can learn to prefer flavors that they consumed earlier and later in a multi-flavored solution paired with an intragastric infusion of glucose, but they expressed only a preference for a late-consumed flavor when they were tested after feeding (Myers and Whitney, 2011). This paradigm can be a suitable rodent model to explain how humans acquire a selective preference for routinely late-served “dessert” foods and why these foods remain attractive even in the absence of hunger. Here, we examined whether oral glucose (Experiment 1) or fat (Experiment 2) acts as a US for flavor preference learning processes in this paradigm. In Experiment 1, adult female rats under food restriction were trained in 16 daily sessions with two distinct flavor CSs in succession per session; eight CS(+) sessions in which two distinct flavor CSs (early(+), late(+)) were sequentially presented for 8 min each with oral glucose (12%) as a US, and eight CS(-) sessions in which different CSs (early(-), late(-)) were unpaired with the US. In the 30-minute two-bottle choice test, rats preferred late(+) over late(-) only when tested 90 min after consumption of normal chow (fed test) but not after overnight deprivation (hungry test). Early(+) was not preferred over early(-) in both tests. Moreover, a significant preference for late(+) over early(+) was observed only in the fed test, which is a unique feature of oral glucose-CFP. These results indicate that taste sensations of oral glucose promote a rewarding effect of late-onset glucose nutrients. In Experiment 2, separate rats were trained with the same conditioning paradigm, but used a caloric matched fat solution (5.3% corn oil) for a US. The results showed that they expressed stronger preferences for early(+) and late(+) relative to their respective CS(-) flavors in both tests. Similar to Experiment 1, it was observed in the fed test that there was a preference for late(+) over early(+) in oral fat-CFP. Taken together, the present results suggest that routine timing arrangements can cause qualitative differences in conditioned preferences between multiple flavors within a sugar or fat-containing meal in rats, and that rats prefer the late-consumed flavor over the early-consumed flavor in the absence of hunger.
Acquired tastes: on the learning of human food preferences
2022, Flavor: From Food to Behaviors, Wellbeing and Health, Second Edition
People are born with few specific food preferences. Most preferences are acquired with experience. One type of such learning concerns Pavlovian conditioning in which a flavor becomes better liked through its association with an already liked taste, nutritive outcome, or another positive postingestive effect. Pavlovian conditioning also underlies the experience of food craving, an intense desire for a certain food item. Food craving is elicited by cues predicting the intake of a particularly palatable food. Pavlovian food cues thus motivate instrumental food seeking and intake. Research demonstrates that increased liking and preference for healthier foods can be conditioned by pairing a healthy flavor with a positive outcome (Pavlovian conditioning) and by pairing the consumption of healthy foods with a rewarding outcome (instrumental conditioning). Healthier food preferences can also be acquired vicariously by learning from observing trusted others. Both direct and indirect experiences with certain foods thus importantly contribute to the acquisition of food preferences.
Motivational factors controlling flavor preference learning and performance: Effects of preexposure with nutritive and nonnutritive sweeteners
2021, Behavioural Processes
In three experiments thirsty rats were given exposure to a sweet solution (saccharin in some experiments, sucrose in others) prior to consuming a compound of the sweet substance and almond flavoring. Preference for that flavor, in a choice test of almond vs. water, was then assessed. In some cases the rats were hungry, in others they were not. When the sweetener used was saccharin, preexposure reduced the magnitude of the preference obtained on test in both hungry and nonhungry rats. When the sweetener was sucrose, preexposure had this effect only when the rats were hungry. The effects produced after preexposure to saccharin are interpreted as being the result of habituation to its sensory features that reduces the ability of these features to engage in subsequent learning. These effects will occur whether the animal is hungry or not. The results for sucrose are interpreted in terms of the fact that it possesses both sensory and nutritional properties, the role of the latter being dependent on the motivational state of subject. It is suggested that the sensory features of sucrose do not undergo habituation, but that an effect of preexposure can be obtained in hungry rats when the source of the learned preference will depend on learning about the nutritive consequences of the sucrose.
Perirhinal cortex supports both taste neophobia and its attenuation
2020, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
Citation Excerpt :
Many studies have shown that after several days of pairing, when a two-bottle choice test is used in which both flavors are simultaneously presented in water, normal rats prefer the taste that was paired with postingestive consequences or the sweet taste, respectively (Dwyer, 2011; Reilly & Pritchard, 1996; Sclafani, 2004; Sclafani & Ackroff, 1994; Touzani & Sclafani, 2005; Ueji, Minematsu, Takeshita, & Yamamoto, 2016; Yamamoto & Ueji, 2011). With regard to flavor-taste conditioning, some studies have shown robust learning using saccharin as the sweet taste without post-ingestive/nutritional consequences (Díaz & De la Casa, 2011; Díaz et al., 2004; Fanselow & Birk, 1982; Forestell & Lolordo, 2003; Holman, 1975; Messier & White, 1984; Ueji et al., 2016). Therefore, since the flavor-taste conditioning using saccharin as US depends completely on orosensory mechanisms, this procedure seems ideal for evaluating whether Prh-lesioned rats have a deficit in taste processing/perception.
Rats are often reluctant to consume novel tastes because they lack knowledge about the postingestive effects the new foods might have. This paper examines the effect of excitotoxic lesions and temporary inactivation of the perirhinal cortex (Prh), a key region in the recognition memory system, on taste neophobia and its attenuation. Using a two-bottle choice paradigm (saccharin vs water), excitotoxic lesions were found to disrupt taste neophobia to 0.3% and 0.5% saccharin. However, the lesions had no effect when using a concentration of 0.7%, which is qualitatively aversive (expt. 1a-1c). In a second series of experiments the same animals were able to acquire a flavor preference learning on the basis of a flavor-taste association. Lesioned and control rats showed, during a choice test, a clear preference for the flavor associated with saccharin (expt. 2a-2c). Finally, in a third series of experiments, Prh inactivation with lidocaine after trial 1 (expt. 3) and after trials 1-3 (expt. 4) delayed attenuation of the neophobia. These findings suggest that Prh lesions do not significantly affect taste processing/ perception. Prh thus appears to play an essential role in taste neophobia and its attenuation.

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^☆: This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grant GB-13588X.

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Immediate and delayed reinforcers for flavor preferences in rats☆

Abstract

Saccharin as sugar surrogate

Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology

Conditioned hypoglycemia: a mechanism for saccharin-induced sensitivity to insulin in the rat

Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology

Establishment of conditioned taste aversions with a 24-hour CS-US interval

Physiological Psychology

Relation of cue to consequence in avoidance learning

Psychonomic Science

Principles of behavior: An introduction to behavior theory

Hilgard and Marquis' conditioning and learning

The establishment of the sensory preconditioning effect using different flavors as sensory preconditioning stimuli

Effet de la durée du jeûne post-prandial sur l'établissement des appétits chez le rat blanc

Comptes Rendus de la Société de Biologie

Etude d'un facteur post-ingestif de l'établissement des appétits chez le rat blanc

Archives des Sciences Physiologiques