CONSUMMATORY SUCCESSIVE POSITIVE CONTRAST PRODUCED BY THE DOWNSHIFT OF AN AVERSIVE SOLUTION IN INFANT RATS

SUAREZ, A.; KAMENETZKY, G.; PAUTASSI, R.

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY

JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2017 vol. 59 p. 118 - 122

0012-1630

Subjects trained in successive positive contrast are usually given an appetitive stimulus of relatively low quality during a pre-shift, followed by exposure to a significantly greater quality of the same stimulus. Enhanced responsiveness to the high-quality stimulus during the post-shift phase, compared to a control group that receives the superior reward in both phases, is taken as an index of successive positive contrast. We exposed infant rats to 0.1% or 0.01% quinine during 4, 10-min, trials (pre-shift phase). All animals were then given two trials of exposure to 0.01% quinine (post-shift phase). During the post-shift phase, the group that had been exposed to 0.1% quinine exhibited significantly greater intake of 0.01% quinine, along with a reduction in the emission of paw treading and an enhancement in paw licking, an appetitive response. This evidence is suggestive of consummatory positivecontrast using an aversive solution in preweanling rats.