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Conditioned Taste Aversion

Conditioned taste aversion, also known as sauce béarnaise syndrome, is a phenomenon in which an individual develops an aversion to a certain food taste following a negative experience, typically illness. This form of aversion is a type of classical conditioning in which the taste of the food (conditioned stimulus, CS) is associated with the experience of illness (unconditioned stimulus, UCS).
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 26, 2026

Hyponeophagia: A Measure of Anxiety in the Mouse

Hyponeophagia: A Measure of Anxiety in the Mouse

Published on: May 17, 2011

Aversion learning can reduce meal size without taste avoidance in rats.

Andrea L Tracy¹, Jennifer D Schurdak², James B Chambers²

¹Department of Psychology, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, USA.

Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.)

|February 3, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers conditioned rats to reduce meal size by associating large meals with illness. This finding suggests a new strategy for weight management and understanding bariatric surgery outcomes.

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Last Updated: Mar 26, 2026

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Area of Science:

Behavioral neuroscience
Appetite regulation

Background:

Bariatric surgery often leads to reduced meal size and nausea.
Understanding the mechanisms behind post-surgical appetite changes is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if meal size can be conditioned using aversive outcomes.
To explore the implications for weight loss and bariatric surgery efficacy.

Main Methods:

Rats were trained to associate large meal intake with lithium chloride (LiCl)-induced gastric illness.
Effects on self-determined food intake and body weight were measured.

Main Results:

Rats learned to reduce meal size to avoid the aversive outcome.
The conditioned response was specific to meal size, not taste aversion, and generalized to novel foods.
Conditioning led to increased small meals, decreased total food intake, and reduced body weight.

Conclusions:

Meal size can be conditioned to stay below a threshold using aversion, distinct from taste avoidance.
This conditioned hypophagia and weight loss may inform weight management strategies and bariatric surgery research.