Odor-taste pairings lead to the acquisition of negative hedonic qualities by the odor in aversion learning

Three experiments examined the affective responses conditioned to an odorous stimulus in the taste-mediated odor aversion learning paradigm. Experiment 1 analyzed the microstructure of licking behavior during voluntary consumption. Before conditioning, water-deprived rats had access to a bottle containing either a tasteless odor (0.01% amyl acetate) diluted in water or mixed with 0.05% saccharin. Next, the rats were injected with either LiCl or saline immediately after drinking saccharin. At test, they received the odor and taste solutions on separate days. Lick cluster size was used as a direct measure of the hedonic response to the odor cue. Rats receiving odor-taste pairings prior to the saccharin devaluation showed both lower consumption and lick cluster size, reflecting a reduced hedonic evaluation of the odor. Experiments 2a and 2b used the orofacial reactivity method. After pretraining in the drinking boxes with the odor alone or mixed with saccharin, the rats were intraorally infused with saccharin before injection with LiCl or saline. At test, they were infused in separate sessions with the odor and taste and their orofacial reactions video recorded. There were increased aversive orofacial responses to the odor in rats that had prior odor-taste experience, a result indicating a negative hedonic evaluation of the odor. These results provide evidence of conditioned changes in affective value of odor cues through taste-mediated learning and are consistent with the idea that odor-taste pairings lead to the acquisition of taste qualities by the odor.