Not so fast: taste stimulus coding time in the rat revisited

Behavioral and electrophysiological studies suggest that rats can identify a taste stimulus with a single lick, in <200 ms. However, the conditions under which these conclusions were drawn varied widely across experiments. We designed a series of experiments to assess the effects of the number of licks of a tastant that are available, tastant concentration and prior learning experience on the speed with which a tastant can modify behavior. To accomplish this we tested exemplars of four basic taste qualities (quinine, 0.1 mM; NaCl, 100 mM; saccharin, 4 mM, or sucrose, 100 mM; citric acid, 10 mM) in rats that were conditioned to avoid quinine. Taste stimuli were available for one, two, or three licks on separate days. All tastants were presented in a randomized order interspersed with water rinse licks presented on a variable ratio schedule. A tastant-specific significant increase in the proportion of long pauses in licking following quinine presentation was defined as evidence of “behavioral identification.” Rats with aversion training given three licks of all taste stimuli paused significantly more often after quinine by the fourth interlick interval, ~580 ms. Control rats showed no evidence of quinine (0.1 mM) identification. When rats in all conditioning groups were tested with a high concentration of quinine (10 mM), a single lick was sufficient to produce significant pausing after quinine, but not until the fourth interlick interval, i.e., ~580 ms. Testing rats with only two tastants rather than four in a session had no effect on the speed of quinine identification. Present data confirm that a single lick is sufficient for rats to identify a taste stimulus, but that additional licks occur before evidence of identification is apparent. Furthermore, learning, tastant concentration and motivation to drink can all modify the speed of behavioral identification.