APPLICATIONS OF TASTE REACTIVITY TO THE STUDY OF THE NEURAL-HORMONAL CONTROLS OF INGESTIVE BEHAVIOR

Taste plays a central role in guiding ingestive behavior and the encod ing of taste is affected by manipulations that influence ingestive beh avior. In this article, the use of the taste reactivity test to provid e a behavioral assessment of how changes in the oral reinforcing prope rties of a taste may initiate or sustain ingestive behaviors in severa l contexts are discussed. The affects of the animal's sex, sodium defi ciency, exogenous bombesin administration, and the role of central gus tatory Lesions in mediating taste reactivity responses are discussed. Findings indicate that an enhancement of ingestive taste reactivity re sponses correlate with an increased preference and intake of taste sti muli for some, but nor all situations. Such situations include the bom besinlike peptides that reduce sucrose and sodium chloride intake with out influencing taste reactivity responses. Conversely, female rats, c ompared to males, show an elevated intake and preference for a range o f NaCl concentrations and a greater number of ingestive taste reactivi ty responses to some, but nor ail of the preferred concentrations. Suc h mismatches of taste reactivity and intake measures shift attention t o the contribution of nongustatory factors (trigeminal, visceral) in t he control of intake.