Poisoning and conditioned drinking.

Produced conditioned drinking in 73 male Sprague-Dawley albino rats by conditioned stimuli paired with hypertonic procaine, isotonic procaine, and hypertonic saline, in that order of effectiveness. When these solutions were paired with the taste of saccharin, they produced taste aversions in the same order of effectiveness. Lithium chloride, a well-known poison, produced taste aversions but, in contrast, conditioned decreases in drinking. Like taste aversions which develop after 1 trial, conditioned drinking also developed in 1 trial. Results suggest that procaine and hypertonic saline may be poisons, since the malaise they produce is relieved by drinking, can be classically conditioned, and is indexed by conditioned drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)