Pavlovian conditioning of the cephalic phase of gastric acid secretion in the rat

In this experiment the potential for the stimulus control of cephalic phase visceral secretions was examined. A Pavlovian conditioning procedure was used to train one set of rats to expect food in a specific test environment. The gastric acid outputs of these animals to this signalled meal were compared to the acid responses of two other groups of rats which served as controls for associative learning effects. The results of this experiment indicated that after only two CS-US pairings cephalic phase acid output of conditioned rats prior to feeding was statistically greater than that of controls. These data reveal that cephalic gastric acid responses can be brought rapidly under stimulus control by conditioning techniques. The implications of these findings to the control of cephalic phase visceral responses and to the role of conditioning in the elaboration or natural development of these responses are discussed.