Search
Presentation Details
| Poster #224 Neophobia to Saccharine Attenuated by Only Brief Exposure |
| Avi P Patel, Griffin McFarland, Donald B Katz Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, United States |
Animals must simultaneously explore novel stimuli and avoid being harmed by them. In the context of feeding, achieving this balance involves a phenomenon known as attenuation of neophobia (AN): novel foods—even delicious ones—are consumed in a limited amount at first; only after some experience do animals increase their consumption (Lin et al., 2012; Miller & Holzman, 1981). While this learning phenomenon is typically studied across days, more rapid changes in consumption (or more accurately of hesitancy in consumption) have been found to occur even within the first tasting session (Monk et al., 2014) using brief access to trials of saccharine (0.028M). Here, we used this brief-access task (BAT) to explore this fast AN, asking whether it depends on time or amount of exposure. After reproducing Monk et al., we hypothesized that AN is dependent on receiving a consistent series of taste exposures and that small amounts of taste exposure would not fully attenuate neophobia. To test this hypothesis, we limited a group of rats to only 10 seconds of 0.028M saccharine access in a one-bottle BAT trial and measured their consumption on 4 subsequent days during full 15-minute trials. Surprisingly, their consumption, number of licks, and lick rate on the second day were not statistically different from a control group that received all 15 minutes of exposure on the first day instead. Furthermore, on the first exposure of the first day, all groups robustly show a characteristic short bout that is not present on subsequent days. These results demonstrate that even 10 seconds of exposure (~50 licks, ~0.2 grams) can fully attenuate neophobia. These data cast AN as an all-or-none effect that can be elicited by very small amounts of taste exposure. |