Sexual dimorphism in classical conditioning? Sex differences in neophobia, latent inhibition, generalization, and extinction for rats (Rattus norvegicus) in a conditioned taste aversion preparation irrespective of housing conditions.

This study aimed to assess possible sex differences and a potential impact of social housing conditions for some Pavlovian conditioning effects in a conditioned taste aversion preparation with rats. The results of Experiment 1 suggest sex differences in neophobia, latent inhibition, and generalization. Specifically, for females, neophobia, and generalization appeared to be stronger while latent inhibition seemed to be attenuated.

Age, sex and pre-exposure effects on acquisition and generalization of conditioned taste aversion in rats.

The main aim of the present study was to assess the effect of sex and aging in two pre-exposure learning effects, latent inhibition (LI) and perceptual learning (PL), with a conditioned taste aversion paradigm. Young adult (90 days) and aged (more than 18 months) males and females received 8 pre-exposure trials either with stimulus AX (LI conditions) or BX (PL conditions). Then, all animals received a conditioning trial with AX and two test trials, one with AX and other with BX.

Emotional Reactivity to Incentive Downshift in Adult Rats Exposed to Binge-Like Ethanol Exposure During Adolescence.

Alcohol use in adolescents is often characterized by binge-like ethanol consumption pattern, which is associated with long-term health consequences and even with important harms to his developing brain. Among this, ethanol exposure induces long-lasting alterations in anxiety-related neurobiological systems such as corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) or melanocortin system (MC). Recently, it has been demonstrated that adult rats exposed to adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE) exposure exhibited anxiogenic-like behavior.