Weanling and senescent rats process simultaneously presented odor and taste differently than young adults

Weanling, young-adult, and senescent Wistar albino rats had a novel odor/taste stimulus or a single taste stimulus either paired or explicitly unpaired with the unconditioned stimulus, lithium chloride. Animals were then given a saccharin vs water preference test. Standard preference scores indicated that the odor competed with taste for association with the US in young-adult rats but potentiated the conditioned aversion to taste in weanling and senescent rats. Results were interpreted in terms of age-related attentional differences which were hypothesized to account for infantile amnesia and for the memory dysfunction typically observed in senescent animals.