STRESS AND CONSUMPTION - INESCAPABLE SHOCK, NEOPHOBIA, AND QUININE FINICKINESS IN RATS

Exposure to inescapable shock has been shown to result in reduced cons umption of quinine in water (the finickiness effect) in rats. In the p resent experiment, (a) a clear difference in finickiness occurred betw een male adult rats exposed to inescapable shock and those exposed to escapable shock (the first such demonstration), (b) finickiness was re instated 20 days later, and (c) finickiness was eliminated by quinine exposure prior to treatment. The first 2 results support the role of u ncontrollability and/or unpredictability in finickiness and extend its potential impact to long-term consequences. This allows greater poten tial for the modeling of long-term effects, such as eating disorders a nd depression in humans. The finding that preexposure to quinine elimi nated finickiness is contrary to current accounts of the effect. Accou nts of finickiness are proposed in terms of classically conditioned av ersions, bitterness, and neuropeptide control of ingestion.