Morphine-induced modification of quinine palatability: effects of multiple morphine-quinine trials.

Morphine pretreatment attenuates aversive taste reactions elicited by quinine solution when assessed by the taste reactivity test. To determine whether this effect changes across trials, rats were administered morphine (2 mg/kg, subcutaneously) 30 min before a 5-min intraoral infusion of quinine solution (0.05%) on each of eight trials. Neither tolerance nor sensitization developed to morphine-induced attenuation of quinine aversiveness; morphine suppressed quinine-elicited aversive reactions on each trial. In addition, when tested in the absence of morphine, rats displayed a reduced aversion to quinine, suggesting that quinine became conditionally less aversive following previous pairings with morphine.