Wheel running simultaneously produces conditioned taste aversion and conditioned place preference in rats

Wheel running has a rewarding effect that produces conditioned preference to a paired place. Yet, as with rewarding drugs such as amphetamine or morphine, conditioned aversion occurs when a taste is paired with wheel running. The purpose of the present experiment was to test whether each episode of wheel running can simultaneously act as the unconditioned stimulus to produce conditioning of place preference and taste aversion. On paired trials, a rat was given one of two tastes, confined in a running wheel for 30 min, and then exposed to one of two places. On unpaired trials, it was simply exposed to the other taste and place. The rats came to show conditioned aversion to the paired taste but a conditioned preference for the paired place. Thus. like amphetamine or morphine, wheel running can simultaneously produce conditioned place preference and conditioned taste aversion. (C) 2001 Academic Press.