Introduction
Animals can be conditioned to display or not display a variety of behaviors and emotions, including taste preference. This form of conditioning has even been successfully done in humans by using rotation-induced motion sickness after consuming either a familiar or unfamiliar flavored beverage to create a distaste for the beverage (especially the unfamiliar flavored one) (Arwas, Rolnick, & Lubow, 1989).
A very common way to teach rats to dislike a certain taste is to give them injection(s) of lithium chloride (LiCl) directly after consuming a taste stimulus. The lithium chloride causes mild illness, which the rats connect to the taste stimulus, essentially because they believe the food/drink they consumed caused the
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For best results, LiCl should be measured as an absolute quantity, not as a volume or concentration (Nachman & Ashe 1973). These studies (among others) show that LiCl is an effective unconditioned stimulus for taste aversion when administered in correct dosages.
Though many studies have observed the effects of taste aversion, fewer studies have focused on the influence of feeding on this conditioned aversion. In essence, conditioning is a form of learning, and learning requires memory. One study used the pond snail Lymnaea to show that food deprivation lowers blood-glucose levels and levels of insulin circulating; therefore, it decreases the animal’s ability to remember the pairing of taste stimulus and the noxious stimulus (Mita & Koichi 2014).
This study manipulates the preference for sucrose by administering lithium chloride (LiCl) to the rats after consumption of sucrose. The researchers sought to determine whether rats given access to free feeding would display more or less taste aversion than rats who were deprived of food after the LiCl injection.
Methods & Materials
This study used eight adult male Long-Evans rats of average size. Rats were housed separately, each in his own cage on a nocturnal light-dark cycle (lights off at 7:00 AM, lights on at 7:00 PM). Each rat was given 1 hour of
“Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) and its chemically related compound, 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP), provide extremely bitter taste to some subjects (tasters) but are tasteless or only slightly bitter to others (nontasters)” (Hong, et al.,711-15). There have been many experiments done to examine the relationship between PTC tasting and food preferences. “Although PTC itself has not been found in nature, the ability to taste PTC is correlated strongly with the ability to taste other naturally occurring bitter substances, many of which are toxic. Furthermore, variation in PTC taste sensitivity has been correlated with dietary preferences that may have significant health effects” (Wooding, et al., 637-646). Therefore, differences in PTC tasting can correspond with sensitivity to diseases that are related to diets in the human population. “The ability to taste the bitter compounds PTC and PROP was found to be a protective factor against cigarette smoking. On the other hand, PTC tasters may perceive vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts as unpleasantly bitter” (Floriano, et al., 931-941). Based on the information above one can conclude that PTC tasters are less susceptible to smoking cigarettes but they are also less likely to consume food that contain beneficial nutrients. A crucial point to understand is that although cruciferous
The Open University (2014) ‘Evaluative conditioning and food preferences’ [online], DE100 investigating psychology 1. https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=442467§ion=6.3. Accessed (27/04/15).
In previous studies, Frank and Byram’s article suggest that taste and smell interactions are dependent on taste and odor. In their experiments, they gave subjects strawberry
Phenylthiocarbamide, known as PTC, is a compound that is sensitive to the bitter taste of some individuals while tasteless or slightly less bitter to others. The ability to taste PTC is inherited by the presence of a T2R taste receptors found on the tongue. Studies on this began during the 1930s, where scientists noticed that crystals of PTC had different affects on the taste buds of individuals. To test this observation out they used PTC-saturated paper, where the experimentee would place the paper in their mouth for a few seconds and the results were recorded. Those who were able to taste the bitterness of the PTC-saturated paper are known as “tasters”, while those who were not able to taste anything are called “non-tasters”. Being able to
Garcia et al research (Mazure, 2004) proves otherwise, as he shows rats initially made to drink the saccharine-flavoured water, injected with the poison after a delayed interval between the drinking and the drug, developed aversions to the saccharine flavoured water even after 24hours of delay. This illustrates, even when the CS-US is delayed, learning takes place and the ability to do so is adaptive in all species supporting that a general process learning theory is effective. The rat’s biological make-up has an innate tendency to associate illness with the taste of food previously eaten after one trial. Pairing a light with a paw shock, on the other hand, takes several trials to acquire and has low tendency to associate illness with visual or auditory stimuli. Whereas the rats are more likely to associate a painful event like shock with external auditory and visual than with taste stimuli. This revolves around preparedness and we can say that the laws of learning may vary with preparedness of the organism for the association and for those different physiological and cognitive mechanisms (McGowan, & Green, 1971). Louge (1981) also supports taste aversion as a classical conditioning biological constraint learned behaviour on humans as he carried out a questionnaire which resulted in students declaring they were aversive to certain foods. Characteristics, such as smell, sight and texture were also discovered.
In Pavlov’s classical experiment, the dogs were experimentally conditioned to associate a ringing bell with food by the presentation of these events at the same time. As a result, after this response had been experimentally conditioned, a ringing bell, alone, was sufficient to induce the dogs to salivate in anticipation of food.
Foods are absolute necessity in a human’s life; however, we also consume food to fit in a culture or simply as a pleasure. Many people believe that food has the only ability to change physical appearance of a person, but what many fail to realize that food has the ability to manipulate our powerful brain as
A considerable amount of research has been done to explore the link between the media and crime. Although the literature available covers a wide variety of theories associated with this topic, this review will primarily concentrate on common themes which are evident throughout the research. Firstly, it is important to understand how the media reports on crime. The media employs techniques such as ‘selective reporting’ to produce newsworthy crime stories resulting in a disproportionate relationship between actual crime and perceived notions of crime amongst the public. Secondly, the consumption of crime-related media undoubtedly has an impact on the publics’ fear of crime. Although research suggests that fear of crime is not simply linked to
The authors in this study examines the importance and the evolution of the bitter taste receptors in humans and apes. The T2Rs receptors are primarily responsible for bitter taste. Bitter taste is important because it helps organisms to distinguish between different types of food and avoid the ingestion of poisonous compounds since most of these compounds are bitter. Consequently, the researchers hypothesized that the receptors genes have evolved under species specific evolutionary limitations. The T2Rs gene reperoires were sequenced from human, chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes troglodytes), bonobo ( Pan paniscus), gorillas…..
A virtual rat, Sniffy, was used for this experiment. Sniffy the Virtual Rat, Pro Version 3.0 allows for the demonstration of Pavlovian and operant conditioning of a virtual rat. Tom Alloway, Greg Wilson, and Jeff Graham, authors of Sniffy the Virtual Rat designed this program to be an affordable alternative for students to gain “access to the main phenomena of classical and operant conditioning that courses on the psychology of learning typically discuss” (Jakubow, 2007). The program allows for simulations for Pavlovian conditioning such as acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus-intensity effects, compound conditioning, blocking, overshadowing, overexpectation, inhibition, sensory preconditioning,
age old example is Ivan Pavlov conditioned his dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by giving
It is quite disturbing to witness someone undergo much suffering due to a fatal disease, and it is even more painful to lose a loved one because of some kind illness that cannot be cured. Over the years, many individuals have been unfortunate to face the devastating effects of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, among others. However, the emergence of yet another deadly disease known as AIDS has again complicated matters. AIDS has proved to be one of the most fatal health condition across the world, and its impact in the society has grown to be a major global challenge today. The disease is essentially caused by the HIV virus, which can be spread from one person to another through sexual intercourse, blood transfusion, and sharing of cutting and piecing instruments with an infected person (Shukla, 2014). AIDS has not only claimed the lives of millions of people, but also has its economic implications to the nations of the world. Although various treatment procedures have been designed to help address this health threat, such as the use of antiretroviral therapies, the disease, and its associated effects, can only be dealt with effectively through the development of HIV/AIDS vaccine.
The next clue to this being a modern short story is it implying facts and psychological truths rather than stating them. “But perfect, perfect little house. Who could possibly mind the smell?” I think that this introduction to the dollhouse is implying that it represents the upper class. It looks beautiful and gets everyone’s attention, but it has a bad smell of paint, like the arrogant and stuck up attitudes of the Burnells.
Food palatability refers to an organism 's subjective experience of food and can be either positive or aversive. As a result, this is generally associated with reward "liking". The reward value attributed to obtaining different foods plays a role in determining an organism 's actions, and is thus referred to as reward "wanting". These "liking" and "wanting" pathways were previously thought to be processed by similar, linked, neural structures including the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum and were thought to go hand in hand (Smith & Berridge, 2007). However, many researchers now suggests otherwise. Studies still indicate that the nucleus accumbens shell
Traditionally, experimental analysis of Homo sapiens taste thresholds has similarly focused on these two classes of biomolecules, with similar sweetness thresholds as those exhibited by members of the taxa Insecta being established in H. sapiens with respect to simple carbohydrates. For example, while Scheiner et. al. in (2003) (as quoted in Scheiner et al. 2004), demonstrated that a sucrose concentration above 3% was sufficient to induce a positive sweetness detection rate of close to 60% in a population of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, Richard Bowen (2016) has indicated the H. sapiens population response threshold resides around sucrose concentrations of 3.4%.