RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: It has been previously reported that dietary choline supplementation might affect latent inhibition (LI) using a conditioned suppression procedure in rats. We have assessed the effect of dietary choline on LI of flavor aversion learning. METHOD: Adult male Wistar rats received a choline supplemented (5 g/kg), deficient (0 g/kg), or standard (1.1 g/kg) diet for 3 months. After this supplementation period, all rats went through a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) procedure, half of them being pre-exposed to the conditioned stimulus before the conditioning. RESULTS: The results indicated that choline deficiency prevents LI of conditioned flavor aversion to cider vinegar (3%) induced by a LiCl (0.15 M; 2% body weight) intraperitoneal injection, while choline supplementation enhances CTA leading to slower extinction. DISCUSSION: The role of the brain systems modulating attentional processes is discussed.
