Concurrent conditioned taste aversion: a learning mechanism based on rapid neural versus flexible humoral processing of visceral noxious substances

Taste aversion learning (TAL) consists of the avoidance of a taste previously associated with a noxious visceral stimulus. Clinical and experimental studies suggest that this adaptive process can be established by different procedures that imply distinct forms of learning and memory, although the final result is analogous, i.e. avoidance of the gustatory stimulus associated with gastrointestinal discomfort. In fact, a double neurobiological system has been anatomically dissociated and, functionally, may be implicated in nausea and emesis, in food selection, and in neuroimmune interactions. Actually, a dual, parallel, and non-redundant gut-brain system has been proposed that sustain two different TAL modalities, concurrent and sequential. Concurrent TAL requires several trials and is inflexible, requiring simultaneity of the stimuli and the participation of the vagus nerve. In contrast, sequential TAL can be acquired in one trial and is flexible, permits long inter-stimulus delays, and is independent of vagal pathways. These two TAL modalities are analyzed in the light of the recent proposal that different acquisition processes are sustained by distinct cerebral systems.