Effects of number of pre-exposures on sucrose taste aversion in weanling rats

Weanling rats, 20 days old, received 0, 1, 2, 4, or 8 pre-exposures to 12% sucrose prior to a single pairing of sucrose with an intraperitoneal injection of lithium chloride (LiCl; 3.0 mEq of a .15Msolution) or distilled water (20 mg/kg). Testing for sucrose taste aversion with a 2-bottle-choice procedure on 9 test trials reliably showed that increasing numbers of pre-exposures to sucrose directly attenuated taste aversion effects in the LiCl-injected groups but did not appreciably affect intake performance in the distilled water-injected groups. Comparisons between the injection conditions yielded reliable evidence for sucrose taste aversion at each pre-exposure level. These results show that flavor stimulus pre-exposures reliably attenuate subsequent taste aversion in weanling rats as had previously been reported for adult rats.