TASTE PREFERENCES OF FEMALE RATS - MODIFICATION BY NEONATAL HORMONES, FOOD DEPRIVATION AND PRIOR EXPERIENCE

Steroid treatments during the early neonatal period modify adult taste preferences of female rats. A single injection of testosterone propionate on the fifth day of life greatly decreases saccharin preferences (S.P.) while treatment with estradiol benzoate results in increased saccharin consumption. Both early hormone treatments abolish sexual cyclicity and sexual receptivity. These results are related to hormonally-induced modifications in sexual differentiation of neuroendocrine systems. S.P. are increased by total food deprivation but decreased by 25 per cent food deprivation in 24 hr tests; some effects of food deprivation on taste preference persist and others first appear after ad libitum feeding schedules have been re-instated. Mechanisms by which food deprivation and taste preference may interact are considered. Prior experience with saccharin solutions is an important variable in the extent to which ovarian hormones regulate S.P. Thus, for the great majority of rats experienced in the selection of saccharin solutions, S.P. are unaltered by ovariectomy while among inexperienced rats, S.P. are much greater for intact than for ovariectomized females. Hormonal control of S.P. is therefore more important during the acquisition phase of the preference pattern than during the maintenance phase, when other, presumably learned, cues take precedence. © 1969.