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Home > TPR > Vol. 47 (1997) > Iss. 3

 

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Two experiments paired a novel sucrose solution (conditioned stimulus, or CS) with injections of Ketaset-Rompun anesthesia (unconditioned stimulus, or US) to examine the effects of this anesthetic on the development of conditioned taste aversions (CTA) in Sprague-Dawley rats. Experiment 1 showed that using Ketaset-Rompun anesthesia as the US produced a reliable taste aversion, as rats injected with the anesthetic immediately after consumption of a novel sucrose solution drank significantly less sucrose on a 24-hr retention test compared to rats injected with an equivalent volume of saline at training. Additionally, Experiment 2 demonstrated that the level of Ketaset-Rompun-induced CTA varied with the CS-US interval. In this experiment, rats injected with the anesthetic demonstrated an aversion to sucrose at testing if the presentation of the CS was followed by injections of the US either immediately, 1 hr, or 2 hr later. However, when the US was administered 4 or 6 hr after presentation of the CS, no aversion to sucrose was manifested at testing. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 2 suggest that the largest CTA was obtained with the 2-hr delay condition. The methodological implications for researchers Ketaset-Rompun for surgical interventions is considered.


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