Conditioned taste aversion is reduced in rats with a history of lithium/pilocarpine-induced limbic seizures.

Limbic seizures were evoked in rats by single subcutaneous injections of lithium and pilocarpine that are known to elicit severe damage to gustatory-affective centers in the brain. About two months later 12 of these rats and 12 control rats that received either lithium or pilocarpine (no seizures) were given free access to 10% sucrose solutions and then injected with 0.15 M LiCl (10 ml/kg). Whereas the control rats demonstrated the expected conditioned taste aversion (CTA) to later presentations of sucrose during single bottle drinking tests, the rats that had been seizured demonstrated a significant attenuation in CTA.