PMID- 11790425
DA - 20020115
IS - 0031-9384
VI - 74
IP - 4-5
DP - 2001 Nov-Dec
TI - Periadolescent alcohol alters adult behavioral characteristics in the rat.
PG - 637-43 AB - Long-Evans hooded rats were given 5% alcohol (EtOH), 10% EtOH or tap water as sole fluid from postnatal day 21 (P21) to P70. The 10% EtOH group drank 26% less and 10% EtOH males gained 7.6% less weight than the tap water control group. There were no significant consumption or weight differences between 5% EtOH and control subjects. At P105, 35 days after the conclusion of alcohol dosing, we conducted several behavioral tests. Males in the 10% group drank 67.8% more alcohol than controls in a two-bottle preference test. On a DRL-20-s operant reinforcement schedule, a difficult timing task dependent upon limbic structures, subjects in the 10% group had higher barpress rates, while those in the 5% group had lower barpress rates than controls. On this task, 10% females received fewer reinforcements, while both 5% and 10% males earned more reinforcements than controls. Efficiency ratios were lowest for 10% females and highest for 5% males. Males in the 5% group had shorter latencies than controls to find the platform in a Morris water maze and were significantly more likely than controls to initially find the platform. These data suggest that EtOH consumption during periadolescent development may have long-lasting neurobehavioral effects.
AD - Department of Psychology, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive,
22030, Fairfax, VA, USA
FAU - Siciliano, D
AU - Siciliano D
FAU - Smith, R F
AU - Smith RF
LA - eng
PT - Journal Article
CY - United States
TA - Physiol Behav
JID - 0151504
SB - IM
EDAT- 2002/01/16 10:00
MHDA- 2002/01/16 10:00
AID - S0031938401006230 [pii]
PST - ppublish
SO - Physiol Behav 2001 Nov-Dec;74(4-5):637-43.