Running-based pica and taste avoidance in rats

Abstract

Running in an activity wheel generates pica behavior (kaolin clay intake) in rats. Wheel running also results in Pavlovian conditioned avoidance of the taste solution consumed immediately before the running. Since pica has been considered a behavioral marker of nausea in rats, these findings suggest that wheel running induces nausea, which is the underlying physiological state for establishing taste avoidance. This article reports a replication of running-based pica in rats (Experiment 1) and concurrent demonstrations of running-based pica and taste avoidance in the same animals (Experiments 2 and 3). Also shown is that pica does not alleviate running-based taste avoidance (Experiment 3). Another finding is that pica is generated by a nausea-inducing lithium chloride injection but not by a pain-inducing hypertonic saline injection (Experiment 4). These results, when taken together, support the hypothesis that pica behavior generated by wheel running reflects nausea in rats.