Olfactory learning in the rat and its effect on consumatory responses in early stages of ontogeny

SUAREZ, A.; IFRAN, M.C.

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Congreso; II Congress of the Federation of Latin-American and Caribbean Societies for Neuroscience (FALAN); 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

During the early stages of life, the rat expresses a sensitive period for olfactory learning. This learning facilitates proximity to the nest and the interaction between the pups and the dam. Besides, since birth the rat shows rejection toward bitter tastes, and appetitive responses toward sweet tastes. However, there are not previous researches that take into account the interaction between odor and taste in the early ontogeny of the rat. Studies from our laboratory showed that the presence of a pre-exposed odor while a bitter taste is dispensed through an artificial nipple produced a shift of the hedonic value of the aversive taste. This occurred both when the odor was originally neutral and when the odor was biologically relevant. In the case of the neutral odor, the pups were cesarean delivered from Sprague dams and pre-exposed to a lemon scent during 1 hour. For the study with maternal odor, the pups were born vaginally and remained with the dam till the test. Later, in both studies, the animals were tested using an artificial nipple containing a quinine solution and in presence of the lemon odor or the anesthetized mother. In these researches, the presence of the learnt odor induced an increase in quinine consumption as well as attachment responses toward an artificial nipple containing the bitter solution. This indicates that in the early ontogeny of the rat exists a mechanism in which the familiar odors change the normal pattern of responses toward a bitter tastant.