Learned controls of ingestive behaviour

During the 25 year history of the Columbia Appetitive Seminar there have been many notable developments in ingestive behavior research. One area of rapid progress concerns learned controls of feeding behavior. During the 1960's and 1970's most research related to food learning focused on conditioned flavor aversions. While it was assumed that animals also learned to prefer foods based on their positive nutritive consequences, there were few experimental demonstrations of this effect. Examples often cited involved animals learning to prefer a flavor associated with recovery from illness or a vitamin deficiency. There were isolated reports in the 1960's of nutrient infusions increasing flavor preference and acceptance, but it wasn't until the 1970's that nutrient-based learning was firmly established, and not until the 1980's and 1990's investigated in detail. This brief review highlights some of the major findings of nutrient-based learning. Other important aspects of food learning (social, cultural, ecological, environmental) are not discussed here.