Early dietary sodium restriction does not affect functional development of peripheral taste responses but selectively alters taste-related behaviors. (A and B) Integrated taste responses from the CT to a concentration series of NaCl and 0.5 M NH₄Cl in a P15 (A) and an adult (B) control mouse. The line drawn under the 0.5 M NH₄Cl response in A denotes 20 s. (C and E) Relative taste responses in P15–17, P22–27, and adult controls (C; n = 5, 5, and 4/age group, respectively) and E3–E12 diet mice (E; n = 6, 5, and 4/age group, respectively) before (solid lines) and after (dashed lines) lingual application of amiloride. (D and F) Relative taste responses of individual control (D) and E3–E12 diet mice (F) to a concentration series of NaCl before lingual application of amiloride. The respective age of the mouse is listed adjacent to the response to 0.5 M NaCl. (G and H) Two-bottle preference tests in adult control (n = 5) and E3–E12 diet mice (n = 6) to a concentration series of NaCl (G) and citric acid (H). (I) Brief-access taste tests in adult control (n = 9) and E3–E12 diet mice (n = 12) to a concentration series of NaCl. For all dietary- and age-group comparisons, statistical comparisons were multiple, unpaired t tests using the Holm–Sidak method for multiple comparisons. Data in C, E, and G–I are shown as mean ± SEM. * denotes P < 0.05. (G) 0.15 M, P = 0.01; 0.3 M, P = 0.007. (H) 10 mM, P = 0.01; 30 mM, P = 0.015. (I) P = 0.007. In experiments where stable taste responses were recorded (maximum of three full series), relative responses were averaged across trials. Two-bottle taste responses were from one trial for each concentration/stimulus. Short-term access responses were averaged over the last 2 d of testing.