Associative processes in adaptation to repeated cold exposure in rats.

Learning processes have been implicated in drug tolerance, but the role of associative mechanisms in adaptation to stressors has not previously been determined. Rats that received daily brief cold exposures demonstrated adaptation to the cold as measured by an attenuation of hypothermia. Tolerance to the cold was disrupted by changing the context in which the subject experienced the cold. These findings provide evidence of associative processes in adaptation to cold exposure and illustrate that these processes are not limited to drug tolerance.