The effect of early handling on the sexually dimorphic rate of extinction of a conditioned taste aversion in rats

• Main Author: Yoder, Rebecca Lee
• Format: Others
• Published: PDXScholar 1981
• Subjects: Taste; Aversive stimuli; Rats > Behavior; Biological Psychology; Psychology
• Online Access: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3141; https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4147&context=open_access_etds

Male rats have been found to extinguish a conditioned taste aversion slower than females. It has also been found that female rats that have been "handled" (i.e., exposed to daily brief isolation from siblings and mother) during the preweaning period extinguish a taste aversion faster than nonhandled females. The present study sought to combine and extend these findings by testing handled and nonhandled females and males in a conditioned taste aversion under the methodological conditions used in the sex difference research.