Genetic Selection of Alcohol Preference Can Be Countered by Conditioning Processes

• Published in: Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 199 - 206
• Main Authors: Gauvin, David V, Vanecek, Susan A, Baird, Theodore J, Briscoe, Richard J, Vallett, Mary, Holloway, Frank A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.04.1998; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Alcohol Drinking - genetics; Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Conditioning; Conditioning (Psychology); Ethanol - administration & dosage; Ethanol self-administration; Food Preferences; Genetic selection; Home-cage drinking; Limited access; Male; Medical sciences; NP rats; P rats; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Rats, Wistar; Solutions; Sucrose - administration & dosage; Toxicology; Ethanol self-administration; Genetic selection; P rats; Home-cage drinking; Limited access; Conditioning; NP rats; Learning; Consumption; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Acquisition process; Ethanol; Rat; Preference; Animal; Rodentia; Self administration
• ISSN: 0741-8329; 1873-6823
• DOI: 10.1016/S0741-8329(97)00112-2

Twenty-four P rats and 24 NP rats were conditioned to consume 10% w/v alcohol in daily 0.5-h limited access periods using a modified version of Samson’s sucrose fading procedure. Both P and NP rats demonstrated a strikingly similar day-to-day pattern of alcohol intakes. For the most part, P rats drank more than NP rats, but by the middle of the fourth month of drinking, P and NP rats were drinking equivalent amounts of alcohol. Both P and NP rats consumed alcohol in amounts similar to two outbred strains of rats (Wistar and Sprague–Dawley) previously conditioned to drink alcohol in this laboratory.