Pavlovian conditioning with ethanol and lithium: Effects on heart rate and taste aversion in rats

Lawrence D. Wilkin, Christopher L. Cunningham, Robert D. Fitzgerald

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

20 female albino Simonsen rats received paired injections of either ethanol or saline as the CS and LiCl as the UCS in a Pavlovian differential conditioning paradigm. LiCl evoked a large deceleration in heart rate (80-200 beats/min) as a UCR. As a result of 10 conditioning trials, the substance paired with LiCl elicited a lower average heart rate than that elicited by the unpaired substance. Moreover, Ss that received ethanol-LiCl injections subsequently were more averse to the taste of ethanol than Ss receiving saline-LiCl pairings. However, there were no differences in ethanol's ability to serve as the UCS to induce an aversion to a novel flavor solution (i.e., the Avfail phenomenon was not observed). The overall pattern of results underscores the value of using multiple indexes of learning in drug-drug conditioning paradigms. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)781-790
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology
Volume96
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1982
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • ethanol paired with lithium, heart rate &
  • taste aversion, female rats

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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