Critical role of amygdala in flavor but not taste preference learning in rats

The role of the amygdala (AMY) in learning to associate complex flavor (taste + odor cues) with the oral and post‐oral properties of nutrients was examined. Rats with excitotoxic lesions of the basolateral AMY learned to prefer flavors paired with intragastric (IG) infusions of maltodextrin or corn...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:The European journal of neuroscience 2005-10, Vol.22 (7), p.1767-1774
Hauptverfasser: Touzani, Khalid, Sclafani, Anthony
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The role of the amygdala (AMY) in learning to associate complex flavor (taste + odor cues) with the oral and post‐oral properties of nutrients was examined. Rats with excitotoxic lesions of the basolateral AMY learned to prefer flavors paired with intragastric (IG) infusions of maltodextrin or corn oil (Experiment 1), although the preference was slightly attenuated. However, rats with large AMY lesions failed to develop a preference for flavors paired with IG infusions of the same nutrients (Experiments 2 and 4) but were able to learn a preference for a taste mixture paired with IG maltodextrin infusions (Experiment 3). The rats with large AMY lesions also did not acquire a preference for a flavor cue paired with the sweet taste of fructose (Experiment 5). Collectively, these data provide evidence that AMY is essential for flavor‐ but not taste‐nutrient preference learning.
ISSN:0953-816X
1460-9568
DOI:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2005.04360.x