Microstructural analysis of conditioned and unconditioned responses to maltodextrin

The microstructure of licking responses was analyzed to investigate the interaction between unconditioned responses to maltodextrin and the responses to flavor cues previously associated with maltodextrin. Experiment 1 demonstrated that although the consumption of maltodextrin peaked at intermediate concentrations, the mean lick cluster size showed a positive, monotonic increase with concentration. In Experiment 2, a (conditioned stimulus) CS + flavor was paired with 16% maltodextrin, whereas a CS - flavor was paired with 2% maltodextrin. During test, consumption of the CS + was higher than that of the CS - when the flavors were combined with 2% maltodextrin, but not when combined with 16% maltodextrin. In contrast, cluster size was larger with the CS + than with the CS -, regardless of the concentration of maltodextrin present on test. Previous analyses of licking microstructure indicate that cluster size reflects the palatability of the ingested solution. Thus, the present results indicate that flavor conditioning can change the palatability of the cue flavors. Adding the CS+ flavor to maltodextrin produced results analogous to increasing the concentration of maltodextrin (in terms of both consumption and licking microstructure measures), which is consistent with the idea that after conditioning, responses to the CS + flavor and to the unconditioned stimulus are mediated via the same representation.