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  • Title: Vagotomy facilitates extinction of conditioned taste aversions in rats.
    Author: Kiefer SW, Rusiniak KW, Garcia J, Coil JD.
    Journal: J Comp Physiol Psychol; 1981 Feb; 95(1):114-22. PubMed ID: 7217406.
    Abstract:
    Results from three experiments indicate that severing the subdiaphragmatic vagus in rats increased the rate of extinction of learned taste aversions. In Experiment 1, although vagotomized rats acquired a saccharin aversion equivalent to that of controls when the illness-inducing agent was the blood-borne toxin apomorphine, vagotomized rats tended to consume more saccharin than controls during repeated extinction tests. In Experiment 2, vagotomy disrupted retention and increased extinction of a preoperatively acquired saccharin aversion. Disruptions were found when the taste aversion was induced by copper sulfate, a local gastric irritant (Experiment 2A), or apomorphine, a systemic toxin (Experiment 2B); in each experiment vagotomized rats consumed more saccharin than controls on the first retention test and extinguished the prior to surgery. Experiment 3 demonstrated that vagotomy did not affect retention or extinction of a shock-induced conditioned emotional response (lick to suppression) to noise. It is concluded that integrity of the vagus is not necessary for acquisition of a learned taste aversion when a blood-borne toxin is used as the ill-inducing agent. However, the vagus apparently mediates an integral portion of the conditioned response following taste-illness acquisition regardless of whether the illness agent is a local gastric irritant or a systemic toxin.
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