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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Aversive Associative Learning and Memory Formation by Pairing Two Chemicals in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: June 23, 2022
Taste memory formation: role of nucleus accumbens
Leticia Ramírez-Lugo1, Luis Núñez-Jaramillo, Federico Bermúdez-Rattoni
1Departamento de Neurociencias, Instituto de Fisiologia Celular, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Apartado Postal 70-253, 04510 Mexico, DF, Mexico.
Abstract:
When a novel taste has been associated with postingestive malaise, animals recognize this taste as aversive. This associative learning is known as conditioned taste aversion. However, when an animal consumes a novel taste and no aversive consequences follow, it becomes recognized as a safe signal, leading to an increase in its consumption in subsequent presentations. In this review, we will discuss the results related to the taste memory formation focusing particularly on the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). The NAcc keeps projections with amygdala, insular cortex, parabrachial nucleus, and nucleus of the solitary tract areas important for taste memory formation. We will review the evidence relating to how the NAcc could be involved in taste memory formation, due to its role in the taste memory trace formation and its role in the association of the conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus, and finally the retrieval of taste memory. In this context, we will review the participation of the cholinergic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic systems in the NAcc during taste memory formation.
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