The functional relevance of the lateral parabrachial nucleus in lithium chloride-induced aversion learning.

Lesions to the lateral parabrachial nucleus (PBN), one of the subnuclei that make up the pontine parabrachial complex, impairs the acquisition of taste aversion learning (TAL) with LiCl as the toxic stimulus. In this experiment, PBNl-lesioned and control rats were trained to learn a delayed task with a 15-min interval between presentation of the gustatory and the aversive stimulus. The impairment in learning observed after lesions of the PBNl is discussed in terms of disruption of the transmission of toxic stimuli (LiCl) processed by the humoral pathway and the area postrema (AP).