Dale S. Cannon

The effect of prior ethanol experience on ethanol-induced saccharin aversions

Abstract Conditioned saccharin aversions in rats were produced using ethanol as the illness-producing agent. Such aversions were shown to be dose dependent and were attenuated by prior ethanol experience. The attenuated aversion in ethanol experienced rats was interpreted to be the result of the development of tolerance to ethanol. It is suggested that the taste-illness conditioning paradigm provides a useful index of the reinforcing properties of ethanol intoxication.

Occasion setting of fluid ingestion by contextual cues

Abstract Pairing a familiar palatable fluid and a novel context with lithium chloride (LiCl) and presenting the fluid on non-LiCl-paired trials in the home cage resulted in contextual control of fluid consumption: consumption of the LiCl-paired fluid was reduced in the LiCl-paired context but not in the home cage. A nonpaired fluid was consumed normally in the paired context. These results are interpreted as evidence of occasion setting, i.e., the novel context signals a contingency between the fluid and toxicosis but is not itself associated with toxicosis. Pairing the novel context with LiCl prior to fluid-context-LiCl pairings enhanced the development of contextual control of consumption of the fluid. This enhancement is interpreted as summation of excitatory conditioning of the context with its occasion-setting function.

Potentiation of ethanol withdrawal by prior dependence

Thirty rats were randomly assigned to three groups. Group 1 was given a 21-day exposure to an ethanol (EtOH) liquid diet, while Groups 2 and 3 were given equivalent amounts of an isocaloric non-EtOH liquid diet. Group 1 rats had withdrawal syndromes following EtOH removal. After a two-week recovery period, Groups 1 and 2 were both exposed to an EtOH diet, while Group 3 again received an isocaloric non-EtOH liquid diet. Groups 1 and 2 were withdrawn after 12 days of EtOH exposure and were rated with a behavioral withdrawal rating scale, for which interobserver reliability estimates were determined. Previously dependent (Group 1) rats showed more severe withdrawal syndromes, including a higher incidence of seizures, than rats undergoing their initial withdrawal (Group 2). Studies that do not agree with this finding are discussed.

Taste aversion therapy with alcoholics: Techniques and evidence of a conditioned response

Summary Aversion therapy for alcoholism is based on the notion that aversion conditioning produces a conditioned response (CR) to alcohol that is antagonistic to subsequent alcohol ingestion. This study reports the first experimental evidence that aversion conditioning produces a CR to the taste and smell of alcohol. Two patients were given taste aversion therapy for alcoholism. While medically conservative, the taste-aversion procedures produced profound malaise and reliable emesis shortly after patients began drinking alcoholic beverages. Behavioral. attitudinal and psychophysiological indices all reflected the acquisition of an alcohol aversion as a function of conditioning.

Taste familiarity and apomorphine-induced taste aversions in humans.

Abstract Human volunteers learned taste aversions to a relatively novel cranberry flavor paired with apomorphine-induced illness. These aversions were significantly reduced by pretreatment familiarization to the flavor unless an unpalatable interfering flavor was introduced just prior to the administration of apomorphine. The outcomes have implications for taste-aversion learning in humans and for the control of flavor preferences in patients undergoing illness-inducing chemotherapy.

Alcohol and taste-mediated learning.

Taste-mediated learning is relevant to the alcohol consumption patterns of animals. This review concludes that taste aversion learning has thus far prevented development of an animal model of alcoholism. The presence of a taste cue, lack of control over alcohol administration, and high alcohol concentrations or dosages all facilitate the development of alcohol aversions. There is little evidence that taste preference learning is involved in the development of alcohol dependence. Data from taste-mediated learning research with animals are consistent with drinking patterns of human alcoholics.

MMPI Differences Between Alcoholics and Drug Abusers: Effect of Age and Race

Inpatients in Veterans Administration substance-abuse treatment programs voluntarily took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) as part of a routine clinical evaluation

Effects of alcohol on visually evoked responses in rats during addiction and withdrawal

Abstract The time course of visually evoked responses (VERs) recorded at the cortex were studied in rats during addiction and withdrawal. Data for peak-to-peak amplitudes, latencies and photic afterdischarges (PhADs) were collected on the fifth, eleventh and seventeenth days of addiction, on the day of withdrawal and on the first, second and seventh days postwithdrawal. For the ethanol group during the addiction phase, amplitude and PhAD measures were depressed at the first recording session (day 5) and remained so throughout the addiction phase. Latency data, however, revealed a progressive increase to major peaks throughout the addiction phase that reached significance for P2 on day 17. VER amplitudes and PhAD excursion values were depressed and latencies increased, relative to controls, at the end of the addiction phase. On the day of withdrawal (day 0), P3-N3 amplitudes and PhAD excursion values remained significantly depressed relative to controls. Amplitude measures for other individual components had returned to control levels but had not yet exhibited rebound (neural hyperexcitability). Latency measures remained unchanged during day 0 testing and demonstrated a recovery to control levels by day 1 or 2 postwithdrawal. On day 1 postwithdrawal, amplitude and PhAD measures reflected neural hyperexcitability that remained throughout the seventh day although the decline in amplitudes between the second and seventh day of postwithdrawal testing suggested a trend toward neural recovery. The time course of VER amplitudes and latencies and the PhAD during addiction and withdrawal are discussed.

Role of affect and personality in gastric acid secretion and serum gastrin concentration

The role of mood state (affect) and personality on basal acid secretion and basal serum gastrin concentrations were examined in seven healthy men and eight patients with duodenal ulcer. In each subject, gastric secretion and affect were assessed simultaneously on 5 separate days. None of 10 self-reported affect variables correlated with daily fluctuations in basal acid secretion in either group. Three variables (tension, conflict, and anxiety) correlated significantly with serum gastrin fluctuations in normal subjects, but these relationships were not present in patients with ulcer, who were hypergastrinemic regardless of their affective state. The degree to which serum gastrin fluctuated was unrelated to personality, as assessed by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. On the other hand, several Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scales correlated with the degree of variability in basal acid secretion, including scales that measured impulsivity and social isolation/alienation. These studies indicate that serum gastrin concentrations are related to affective state in normal men, that this relationship is altered in men with duodenal ulcer, and that certain personality traits, such as impulsivity and social isolation, are associated with more labile basal acid secretion rates.

Nausea and radiation-induced taste aversions in cancer patients

The development of taste aversions was studied in 34 oncology patients undergoing radiotherapy. A target flavor was paired with irradiation on four consecutive treatment days. Self-reported nausea on treatment days reliably predicted aversion learning. The implications of this finding for the anorexia of cancer patients and the role of nausea in human taste aversion learning are discussed.