The effects of conditioned taste aversions on the acquisition and maintenance of schedule-induced polydipsia

Conditioned taste aversions produced a moderate, but transient, suppression of schedule- induced polydipsia. This suppression was greater and longer lasting when rats were offered a choice between water and the previously poisoned solution on the polydipsia baseline. A final experiment demonstrated that taste aversions were more effective in suppressing schedule- induced consumption when superimposed on a developing schedule-induced drinking baseline as opposed to a stable pattern of schedule-induced drinking. It was suggested that schedule- induced polydipsia is insensitive to conditioned taste aversions. This conclusion was discussed in terms of schedule-induced alcohol consumption and its potential as an animal model of alcoholism.