| Abstract: | Examined the hedonic response to a taste which is usually regarded as the product of a central integration of gustatory afferent information that ends in a single decision about the nature and intensity of the response to be given. The response is often characterized as a point lying along a single dimension of palatability, stretching from strongly positive to strongly negative. Two experiments dealing with consummatory responses in male Sprague-Dawley rats suggested that the final response is not made on the basis of a single central analysis of taste information, but rather is the result of a competition between 2 separate systems that are activated by tastes. A single oral infusion of a taste solution may elicit rapid alternation between ingestive and aversive consummatory responses. Such alternation is better interpreted as due to a simultaneous activation of 2 palatability dimensions than as a reflection of neutral palatability. When increases in the magnitude of aversive responses are produced by taste mixtures, there is not necessarily a reciprocal decrease in ingestive responses. This asymmetry supports the hypothesis of independent palatability dimensions. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
