Taste exposure during different developmental phases impacts aversion learning in adult rats

Associating a taste with a positive or negative consequence is a robust form of learning that benefits survival by shaping future taste decisions. A robust example is conditioned taste aversion (CTA), wherein tastes associated with malaise are later avoided (Garcia et al., 1955; Lubow, 2009; Reilly & Bornovalova, 2005; Reilly & Schachtman, 2009). One factor that can modulate the strength of CTA learning is previous exposure to the conditioned taste. For example, familiarity with a taste weakens future learning toward that taste (Lubow, 1973, 2009; Lubow & Moore, 1959), demonstrating that even mere exposures to taste impact future plasticity. Taste exposure is ubiquitous in everyday life and begins in-utero. Recently, research has suggested that experience during specific periods of early life development can also induce preference and familiarity toward stimuli later in life, thus it is important to understand whether experience with tastes have differential effects on learning across the lifetime. Here, we explore for the first time whether sucrose exposure during different developmental stages in Long Evans rats (N = 55) differentially impacts sucrose-CTA learning in adulthood. Such an effect would suggest the existence of unique plasticity mechanisms that are influenced by taste exposure across different development phases. Interestingly, we report an enhancement of aversion learning in adult rats who were exposed to sucrose through their mother, either during gestation or lactation. These findings suggest that taste exposure during specific phases of early development holds unique significance for neuroplasticity and learning in adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).