Sapid savvy in sucklings: the effect of quinine hydrochloride on intraoral negative pressure and intake by 11-13-day-old rat pups

Taste differentiation in the context of suckling and independent, adultlike ingestive behavior

The present study compared intake of sweet (saccharin), bitter (quinine), and neutral (water) tastants available either in the context of suckling behavior through a surrogate nipple or independent adultlike feeding through an intraoral cheek cannula in 3-hr-old newborn rats lacking any suckling experience and 24-hr-old rats with regular experience with the dam's nipple. The new technique of online monitoring of fluid flow was applied for assessment of the temporal patterns of ingestion. Newborn and 1-day-old rats tested in the context of suckling behavior showed extremely low intake of quinine, moderate intake of water, and high intake of saccharin. In the same way, they demonstrated low intake of quinine and high intake of saccharin in the context of independent feeding, but intake of water was also high and comparable to that of saccharin. Suckling rats attained higher efficacy of fluid extraction from nipple than pups drinking from cannula. The differential responsiveness to quinine, saccharin, and water in suckling rats was also manifested through attachment behavior, with pups spending less time on the nipple providing quinine and more time on the nipple with saccharin than on the nipple providing water. These results suggest that neonates show taste differentiation as early as 3 hr after birth, and that this taste differentiation is more pronounced in the context of suckling behavior than in the context of adultlike, independent ingestion.

Oral compression activity on a surrogate nipple in the newborn rat: Nutritive and nonnutritive sucking

Newborn rats, 3 hr after birth and before any experience in suckling, were exposed for 10 min to a surrogate nipple providing milk. One hour later, they were exposed to an empty nipple for another 10-min period. The basic characteristics of oral behavior (oral compression activity, OCA) were assessed by recording intranipple pressure during the pups' first attachment to a nipple. The peculiarities of milk-induced changes of OCA were examined with three modes of milk delivery (milk infusions, and intermittent and continuous milk deliveries). The pattern of OCA exerted by the newborn pups on a surrogate nipple consisted of rhythmic oscillations within a frequency range of 0.4 to 1.0 Hz superimposed on slow (frequency < 0.2 Hz), irregular intranipple pressure fluctuations. Oral behavior during the first minute after oral capture of the nipple differed significantly from that during any subsequent 1-min interval in terms of frequency content of OCA. The pattern of OCA changes induced by milk infusions or intermittent milk delivery included an abrupt rise in intranipple pressure, accompanied or followed by a burst of fast nipple compressions (bites). Our data suggest that newborn rats attached to a surrogate nipple demonstrate patterns of oral behavior that simulate, in terms of basic frequency characteristics, patterns of nutritive and nonnutritive suckling observed in more mature pups on the maternal nipple.