Comparison of taste aversions induced by radiation and lithium chloride in CS--US and US--CS paradigms

Conditioned taste aversions induced by ionizing radiation and LiCl were compared in both forward (CS--US, conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus) and backward (US--CS) conditioning paradigms. Taste aversions were produced when a saccharin CS preceded or followed a 100-R radiation US by as much as 6 hr., but a 2 percent of body weight, .15 M LiCl US was effective only in CS--US pairings. It was argued that the ineffectiveness of a LiCl stimulus in US--CS pairings was not attributable to differences in the strength of the respective LiCl and radiation doses in that these doses yielded comparable aversions in forward pairings. These results were related to inadequacies of a sickness model of taste aversion conditioning. (U.S.)