Ramirez I
Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308.
Physiol Behav. 1993 Feb;53(2):373-7. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(93)90220-a.
Studies examined the contribution of textural factors to the ability of rats to sense starch. If rats sense the abrasive effects of starch suspensions, conditioned aversions to starch should generalize to substances having a similar texture. Two substances having a texture similar to that of starch were examined, polymeric dialdehyde (a product derived from starch) and inulin (a polymer of fructose). Rats were trained to avoid dilute suspensions of rice starch, potato starch, polymeric dialdehyde, or dahlia inulin, by injecting them with lithium chloride after they drank the test substance. Generalization tests revealed that rats trained to avoid rice or potato starch subsequently avoided corn starch, whereas rats trained to avoid polymeric dialdehyde or dahlia inulin did not avoid corn starch. Rats trained to avoid polymeric dialdehyde avoided this substance to a greater degree than did rats trained to avoid rice or potato starch. Rats trained to avoid dahlia inulin avoided this substance to a greater degree than did the rats in the other groups, but avoidance of dahlia inulin did not generalize to chicory inulin. Untrained rats showed little or no preference for dilute suspensions of polymeric dialdehyde or inulin, but did prefer starch over vehicle. It is concluded that tactile sensitivity does not play a large role in the perception of dilute starch suspensions.
研究考察了质地因素对大鼠感知淀粉能力的影响。如果大鼠能感知淀粉悬浮液的研磨作用，那么对淀粉形成的条件性厌恶应该会泛化到具有相似质地的物质上。研究了两种质地与淀粉相似的物质，聚合二醛（一种由淀粉衍生的产物）和菊粉（一种果糖聚合物）。通过在大鼠饮用测试物质后注射氯化锂，训练它们避免饮用大米淀粉、土豆淀粉、聚合二醛或大丽菊菊粉的稀释悬浮液。泛化测试表明，训练来避免大米或土豆淀粉的大鼠随后会避免玉米淀粉，而训练来避免聚合二醛或大丽菊菊粉的大鼠不会避免玉米淀粉。训练来避免聚合二醛的大鼠比训练来避免大米或土豆淀粉的大鼠更能避免这种物质。训练来避免大丽菊菊粉的大鼠比其他组的大鼠更能避免这种物质，但对大丽菊菊粉的避免并没有泛化到菊苣菊粉。未训练的大鼠对聚合二醛或菊粉的稀释悬浮液几乎没有偏好，但确实更喜欢淀粉而不是赋形剂。得出的结论是，触觉敏感性在对稀释淀粉悬浮液的感知中不起很大作用。
