Spatial cues are relevant for learned preference/aversion shifts due to amino-acid deficiencies.
Rats are able to choose appropriately between two versions of a novel diet, when one is amino-acid devoid and the other corrected. Recognition of the deficiency has been reported to occur within hours and to initiate a strong conditioned aversion. For that purpose the rat can use either oro-sensory cues or another alternative as the conditioned stimulus (CS) with which to associate the unconditioned stimuli (US) of either the adequate diet or the devoid diet. The present investigation was designed to determine whether rats have the ability to use place as a cue in amino-acid preference/aversion. In order to avoid interfering with any other than spatial sensory discrimination between the dev…