Short-term (5 min.) intake functions for sucrose were determined for 11 brain-damaged, developmentally retarded children using the single-stimulus-presentation method. Sucrose intake was a decreasing function of concentration. Water intake was equal to or greater than the greatest intake of any concentration of sucrose. These intake functions lacked the ascending limb of intake functions for water and weak concentrations of sucrose which are found in other animal species and in human adults. Evidence supports the notion that severely developmencally retarded children are not ageusic but can discriminate between various concentrations of sucrose and water.
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