PKC blockade differentially affects aversive but not appetitive gustatory memories.

After consumption of a new taste, there are mainly two possible outcomes for the establishment of a taste memory, either it will be aversive or safe depending on the consequences of taste consumption. It has been proposed that both types of learning share a common initial taste memory trace, which will lead to two different memory traces, safe or aversive. To study the role of PKC activity in aversive or safe taste memory formation, we administered chelerythrine, a PKC inhibitor, into the insular cortex or parietal cortex 20 min before conditioned taste aversion or attenuation of neophobia training. The results suggest that PKC activity is needed in the insular cortex for the establishment of aversive taste memory, but not for safe taste memory.