Enhanced latent inhibition in context aversion conditioning

In four experiments, we investigated the effect of giving rats exposure to a distinctive environmental context before a phase of training in which an injection of LiCl was paired with that context. The results of Experiments I and 2 were consistent with the possibility that such preexposure served to retard subsequent conditioning to the context (i.e., produced a latent inhibition effect). Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that allowing the rats to consume a novel-flavored solution during preexposure enhanced the latent inhibition effect. The relevance of these findings both for theories of latent inhibition and for the use of preexposure as a clinical intervention for the reduction of conditioned nausea in humans is considered. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.