Long-range two-choice saccharin and water consumption in rats.

Abstract

Saccharin preference by naive male albino and pigmented rats on ad-lib feeding and on long-range choice between saccharin and water was 1st an increasing and then a decreasing joint function of saccharin concentration and exposure time. Water 1st decreased and then increased but only as a function of saccharin concentration. Periodic saccharin fluctuations, function of saccharin concentration, had no detectable counterpart in the water intake of low-saccharin concentration groups but affected the water of the higher concentration group so that the periodicities of saccharin and water were of opposite phase. An accommodation process requiring water's compensatory action in the case of the high concentration was proposed. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)