An appetite for CaCl2 and NaCl occurs in young rats after they are fed a diet lacking Ca or Na, respectively. Bilateral lesions of the parabrachial nuclei (PBN) disrupt normal taste aversion learning and essentially eliminate the expression of sodium appetite. Here we tested whether similar lesions of the PBN would disrupt the calcium-deprivation-induced appetite for CaCl2 or NaCl. Controls and rats with PBN lesions failed to exhibit a calcium-deprivation-induced appetite for CaCl2. Nevertheless, both groups did exhibit a significant calcium-deprivation-induced appetite for 0.5 M NaCl. Thus, while damage to the second central gustatory relay in the PBN disrupts the appetite for 0.5 M NaCl induced by furosemide, deoxycorticosterone acetate, and polyethylene glycol, the sodium appetite induced by dietary CaCl2 depletion remains intact.
