Strain differences among mice in taste psychophysics of sucrose octaacetate

Abstract

SWR/J inbred mice consistently avoided a 10^–4 M sucrose octaacetate (SOA) solution in unconditioned two-bottle preference tests whereas mice of all other inbred strains tested did not (confirming a previous report that used SWR mice of a different subline). In a conditioned taste aversion procedure SWR/J mice avoided SOA at concentrations from 10^–3 M to 10^–7 M but not at 10^–8 M. Various other inbred strains first failed to avoid SOA at concentrations from 10^–3 M to 10^–5 M. The major strain difference between SWR and other inbred mice was robust across rearing regimes and when tested with other psychophysical procedures. In single-bottle, free-licking tests SWR/J mice differed from C57L/J mice in response to SOA following extremely brief exposure to the SOA.The SOA detection threshold differences indicated by these psychophysical procedures are also consistent with differences reported from electrophysiological recordings from glossopharyngeal and chorda tympani nerves in mice of several of the same strains.