Premium
Deficits in trace fear conditioning induced by neonatal alcohol persist into adulthood in female rats
Author(s) -
Schreiber William B.,
Hunt Pamela S.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.21035
Subject(s) - conditioning , psychology , fear conditioning , hippocampus , alcohol , physiology , developmental psychology , trace (psycholinguistics) , medicine , endocrinology , neuroscience , chemistry , amygdala , biochemistry , statistics , mathematics , linguistics , philosophy
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