Escape from deficits in sodium intake after thalamic lesions as a function of preoperative experience.

Saline and water intakes in response to treatments with a natriuretic agent and a mineralocorticoid were studied in intact rats and in rats with lesions centered in the taste delay of the thalamus. Intact rats responded to the treatments by increasing both saline and water intake. Rats with thalamic lesions that had never drunk saline prior to induction of the lesions generally did not increase their saline intake in response to the treatments but showed normal increases in water intake. In contrast, rats with thalamic lesions that had drunk saline prior to induction of the lesions showed normal increases in both saline and water intake. Preoperative experience of sodium need did not protect rats against the lesion-induced deficit.