Flavor avoidance induced by LiCl and dexfenfluramine in rats and mice using nondeprivation protocols

Using dexfenfluramine as unconditional stimulus (US), the authors confirmed that sham-operated and area postrema (AP)-lesioned rats form comparable conditioned flavor avoidances. When lithium chloride (LiCI) was used as the US, AP-lesioned rats did not learn to avoid a drug-paired flavor conditional stimulus (CS+). Sham-operated, but not AP-lesioned, rats had low intakes of the placebo-paired flavor (CS-), which suggests that the lesions disrupted generalization of avoidance. Generalized avoidance in intact rats was similar when either sweetened milk or Polycose was used as the caloric vehicle for the CSs. When flavored gels of Polycose were used as CSs, C57BL/6J mice developed flavor avoidance with either LiCl or dexfenfluramine as US. Compared with rats, mice required higher doses of these agents, avoidance was not complete after many pairings, and there was no generalization to the CS-.