Ventral pallidal coding of a learned taste aversion. 2016

Christy A Itoga, and Kent C Berridge, and J Wayne Aldridge
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States. Electronic address: itogac@umich.edu.

The hedonic value of a sweet food reward, or how much a taste is 'liked', has been suggested to be encoded by neuronal firing in the posterior ventral pallidum (VP). Hedonic impact can be altered by psychological manipulations, such as taste aversion conditioning, which can make an initially pleasant sweet taste become perceived as disgusting. Pairing nausea-inducing LiCl injection as a Pavlovian unconditioned stimulus (UCS) with a novel taste that is normally palatable as the predictive conditioned stimulus (CS+) suffices to induce a learned taste aversion that changes orofacial 'liking' responses to that sweet taste (e.g., lateral tongue protrusions) to 'disgust' reactions (e.g., gapes) in rats. We used two different sweet tastes of similar initial palatability (a sucrose solution and a polycose/saccharin solution, CS ± assignment was counterbalanced across groups) to produce a discriminative conditioned aversion. Only one of those tastes (arbitrarily assigned and designated as CS+) was associatively paired with LiCl injections as UCS to form a conditioned aversion. The other taste (CS-) was paired with mere vehicle injections to remain relatively palatable as a control sweet taste. We recorded the neural activity in VP in response to each taste, before and after aversion training. We found that the safe and positively hedonic taste always elicited excitatory increases in firing rate of VP neurons. By contrast, aversion learning reversed the VP response to the 'disgusting' CS+ taste from initial excitation into a conditioned decrease in neuronal firing rate after training. Such neuronal coding of hedonic impact by VP circuitry may contribute both to normal pleasure and disgust, and disruptions of VP coding could result in affective disorders, addictions and eating disorders.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D009043 Motor Activity Body movements of a human or an animal as a behavioral phenomenon. Activities, Motor,Activity, Motor,Motor Activities
D009325 Nausea An unpleasant sensation in the stomach usually accompanied by the urge to vomit. Common causes are early pregnancy, sea and motion sickness, emotional stress, intense pain, food poisoning, and various enteroviruses.
D009474 Neurons The basic cellular units of nervous tissue. Each neuron consists of a body, an axon, and dendrites. Their purpose is to receive, conduct, and transmit impulses in the NERVOUS SYSTEM. Nerve Cells,Cell, Nerve,Cells, Nerve,Nerve Cell,Neuron
D002408 Catheters, Indwelling Catheters designed to be left within an organ or passage for an extended period of time. Implantable Catheters,In-Dwelling Catheters,Catheter, In-Dwelling,Catheter, Indwelling,Catheters, In-Dwelling,In Dwelling Catheters,In-Dwelling Catheter,Indwelling Catheter,Indwelling Catheters
D003214 Conditioning, Classical Learning that takes place when a conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus. Reflex, Conditioned,Classical Conditioning,Classical Conditionings,Conditioned Reflex,Conditionings, Classical
D004567 Electrodes, Implanted Surgically placed electric conductors through which ELECTRIC STIMULATION is delivered to or electrical activity is recorded from a specific point inside the body. Implantable Electrodes,Implantable Stimulation Electrodes,Implanted Electrodes,Implanted Stimulation Electrodes,Electrode, Implantable,Electrode, Implantable Stimulation,Electrode, Implanted,Electrode, Implanted Stimulation,Electrodes, Implantable,Electrodes, Implantable Stimulation,Electrodes, Implanted Stimulation,Implantable Electrode,Implantable Stimulation Electrode,Implanted Electrode,Implanted Stimulation Electrode,Stimulation Electrode, Implantable,Stimulation Electrode, Implanted,Stimulation Electrodes, Implantable,Stimulation Electrodes, Implanted
D005936 Glucans Polysaccharides composed of repeating glucose units. They can consist of branched or unbranched chains in any linkages. Glucan,Polyglucose,Polyglucoses,Glucan (BO),Glucose Polymer,Polycose,Polymer, Glucose
D000200 Action Potentials Abrupt changes in the membrane potential that sweep along the CELL MEMBRANE of excitable cells in response to excitation stimuli. Spike Potentials,Nerve Impulses,Action Potential,Impulse, Nerve,Impulses, Nerve,Nerve Impulse,Potential, Action,Potential, Spike,Potentials, Action,Potentials, Spike,Spike Potential
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia

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