The effects of preoperative ingestive events on feeding and drinking behavior following brain damage

Gustatory functions, sodium appetite, and conditioned taste aversion survive excitotoxic lesions of the thalamic taste area.

“…Initially, Wolf (1968)reported that large medial thalamic lesions, which included VPMpc, blocked the expression of an Na + -appetite. Subsequent experiments determined that prelesion experience with tasting an NaCl solution protected rats from the effects of thalamic damage, perhaps because they had learned the position of the appropriate bottle (Ahern, Landin, & Wolf, 1978; Paulus, Eng, & Schulkin, 1984; Schulkin, 1988). Rats exhibit latent learning for a source of NaCl when subsequently sodium-depleted (Krieckhaus & Wolf, 1968).…”

“…With large lesions of the medial thalamus, rats that were exposed to NaCl in their home cages prior to the lesions exhibited a normal Na + appetite after surgery; those without prior experience showed little or no such appetite (Ahern et al, 1978; Wolf, 1968). This protective effect has been attributed to place learning, because if the NaCl bottles were moved to a novel location after thalamic lesions, the rats no longer exhibited an Na + appetite (Paulus et al, 1984; Schulkin, 1988). In the experiments of Flynn, Schulkin, et al (1991), the rats did not have a preoperative experience with NaCl solution intake, but before the salt appetite experiment (postoperatively), they were tested in a 15-min, single-bottle paradigm with ascending concentrations of NaCl.…”

Salt appetite and lesions of the ventral part of the ventral median preoptic nucleus.

“…The animals were housed in hanging wire-mesh cages with Wayne lab chow, tap water, and 0.3M NaCl solution freely available when experiments were not being conducted. Saline solutions were provided at least 2 days before lesion surgeries, so deficits in drinking to various stimuli are specific to the lesions and not to a lack of preoperative access (Schulkin, 1988). Temperature was controlled at 23 °C, and the room lights were on 12 hr/day.…”

Effects of lesions of the ventral ventral median preoptic nucleus or subfornical organ on drinking and salt appetite after deoxycorticosterone acetate or yohimbine.

“…The animals were housed in hanging wire-mesh cages with Wayne lab chow, tap water, and 0.3 M NaCl solution freely available when experiments were not being conducted. Saline solutions were provided at least 1 day before lesion surgeries, so deficits in drinking induced by various stimuli were specific to the lesions and not to a lack of preoperative access (Schulkin, 1988). Temperature was controlled at 23 °C, and the room lights were on 12 hr per day.…”