Hypothermia modifies the effective CS-US interval in conditioned taste aversion in rats.

Conditioned taste aversion can be acquired when rats experience an unconditioned stimulus (US) while anesthetized. In contrast to anesthetics, a hypothermia-induced comatose state immediately after presentation of a taste conditioned stimulus (CS) prevented a taste-illness association at relatively short CS-US intervals and potentiated the aversion at longer intervals. Results at shorter CS-US intervals were explained on the basis of hypothermia's temporally graded amnesitc properties.