Deficits in trace fear conditioning induced by neonatal alcohol persist into adulthood in female rats

The developing hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of alcohol, and behavioral deficits on hippocampus‐dependent tasks have been reported following neonatal alcohol exposure in rodents. Previously, we have found that trace fear conditioning (a hippocampus‐dependent learning ta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDevelopmental psychobiology Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 352 - 360
Main Authors Schreiber, William B., Hunt, Pamela S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.05.2013
Subjects
Age Factors
Animals
Animals, Newborn
Behavior, Animal - drug effects
Central Nervous System Depressants - administration & dosage
Central Nervous System Depressants - pharmacology
Conditioning, Classical - drug effects
delay conditioning
Ethanol - administration & dosage
Ethanol - pharmacology
Fear - drug effects
Female
fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
hippocampus
Male
neonatal alcohol exposure
Neuropsychological Tests
Placebos
prenatal alcohol exposure
rat
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Sex Factors
Time Factors
trace conditioning
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Summary:The developing hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of alcohol, and behavioral deficits on hippocampus‐dependent tasks have been reported following neonatal alcohol exposure in rodents. Previously, we have found that trace fear conditioning (a hippocampus‐dependent learning task) is disrupted in rats exposed to alcohol during postnatal days (PD) 4–9, although delay fear conditioning is not. The present study indicates that this impairment in trace fear conditioning, previously only measured during adolescence, persists into adulthood but only in females. Animals were exposed to 5.0 g/kg/day alcohol on PD 4–9 and were trained on either PD 30 or 65. Alcohol exposure significantly impaired trace conditioning in both sexes at PD 30. In animals trained as adults, the deficit in trace was only observed in female subjects, suggesting that although males exhibit an age‐related recovery of function, alcohol‐induced trace conditioning deficits are more persistent in female Sprague–Dawley rats. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 55: 352–360, 2013
Bibliography:istex:EB269F03A2CDE0B3A19EC47616EC28297A61FB03
ark:/67375/WNG-60ZB6MR1-G
ArticleID:DEV21035
ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0012-1630
1098-2302
DOI:10.1002/dev.21035