Effects of number of pre-exposures on sucrose taste aversion in weanling rats

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Abstract
Weanling rats, 20 days old, received 0, 1, 2, 4, or 8 pre‐exposures to 12% sucrose prior to a single pairing of sucrose with an intraperitoneal injection of lithium chloride (LiCl; 3.0 mEq of a .15Msolution) or distilled water (20 mg/kg). Testing for sucrose taste aversion with a 2‐bottle‐choice procedure on 9 test trials reliably showed that increasing numbers of pre‐exposures to sucrose directly attenuated taste aversion effects in the LiCl‐injected groups but did not appreciably affect intake performance in the distilled water‐injected groups. Comparisons between the injection conditions yielded reliable evidence for sucrose taste aversion at each pre‐exposure level. These results show that flavor stimulus pre‐exposures reliably attenuate subsequent taste aversion in weanling rats as had previously been reported for adult rats.