Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
12-2021
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.S.
Department
Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology
Degree Program
Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, MS
Committee Chair
Samuelsen, Chad
Committee Member
Corbitt, Cynthia
Committee Member
Lundy, Robert
Author's Keywords
taste; smell; flavor; two bottle choice; consummatory choice; food preference
Abstract
Eating food generates associations between odors and tastes (i.e., flavor) that guide future choices. Experience with an odor-taste mixture links an odor with a taste’s quality and hedonic value, resulting in a preference for an odor paired with a palatable taste over an odor paired with an unpalatable taste. However, experience with a neutral stimulus (i.e., latent inhibition) or environment (i.e., context) can influence the formation of conditioned associations. Here, I used a two-bottle brief-access task to determine whether rats display an innate preference between unpaired odors (isoamyl acetate and benzaldehyde), how preexposure to the unpaired odors impacts mixture-dependent consummatory behaviors, and to understand how the context in which mixtures are sampled informs consummatory behaviors. I found that odors are equally palatable prior to being paired with a taste, that experience with unpaired odors did not impact mixture-dependent consummatory behaviors, and that context may influence the formation of odor-taste associations.
Recommended Citation
Chiu, Saphira M., "Effects of chemosensory experience and context on consummatory behaviors." (2021). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3780.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/3780
