Learned taste aversions induced by hypnotic drugs.

Taste aversions reflect the association of drug-produced noxious interoceptive stimuli with distinctive tastes. In the present experiments, taste aversions to sweetened condensed milk were induced in rats by a wide range of doses of the hypnotic drugs, hexobarbital, amobarbital, chloral hydrate, flurazepam and methaqualone and by anesthetization with ethyl ether. Observation of changes in motor behavior following drug administration could not be used to predict the development of taste aversions. Despite the fact that hypnotic drugs have punishing properties, which these paradox is discussed in terms of procedural differences between taste aversion and self-administration experiments.