Failure to show modification of male golden hamster mating behavior through taste/odor aversion learning.

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Abstract
Whether the dependence of mating behavior in the male hamster [Mesocricetus auratus] on olfactory and gustatory stimuli could be used with the taste/odor conditioning paradigm to alter sexual behavior was investigated. Preliminary experiments established the effectiveness of lithium chloride and methyl-atropine nitrate in forming aversions to a saccharin solution. These same agents failed to modify mating behavior when the conditional stimulus was an estrus female hamster. Animals made ill after an exposure to a cotton swab containing phenylacetic acid later showed increased latencies in the initiation of mating with an estrus female swabbed with phenylacetic acid. Animals given 3 punished exposures to phenylacetic acid also showed increased latency to initiate mating and decreased anogenital sniff-licking with a phenylacetic acid-swabbed estrus female. No other measures of mating behavior were altered.

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