Dexamethasone and flavor neophobia in hamsters
Autor: | Roderick Wong, Marne Owen, Christopher B McBride |
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Rok vydání: | 1994 |
Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Physiology General Neuroscience Neophobia food and beverages Hamster equipment and supplies medicine.disease Developmental psychology Endocrinology Internal medicine polycyclic compounds medicine Psychology hormones hormone substitutes and hormone antagonists Glucocorticoid Dexamethasone Flavor medicine.drug |
Zdroj: | Psychobiology. 22:203-208 |
ISSN: | 0889-6313 |
Popis: | The effects of dexamethasone (DEX) on the reactions of male and female hamsters to novel flavors were studied in an attempt to assess the role of novelty-induced stress in flavor neophobia. DEX is a synthetic glucocorticoid of wide-ranging effects including the blocking of adrenal response to stress in pregnant hamsters. If reactions to novel flavors are mediated by stress, DEX-treated hamsters should show an attenuation of flavor neophobia in relation to nontreated animals. Neophobic reactions were assessed by comparing the hamsters’ latency to pouch a novel-flavored nut in comparison with a familiar unflavored one. Flavor neophobia was manifested in response to novel salty, sweet, or sour nuts when male and female hamsters were tested under the control (no-DEX) condition. Similar results were obtained with DEX-treated animals, with one exception. There was an interaction indicating that DEX-treated females showed enhanced neophobic reactions to a sucrose-flavored nut. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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