Premium
Acute Ethanol Administration and Reinforcer Magnitude Reduction Both Reduce Responding and Increase Response Latency in a G o/ N o‐ G o Task
Author(s) -
Moschak Travis M.,
Mitchell Suzanne H.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2012.01789.x
Subject(s) - latency (audio) , ethanol , reinforcement , reduction (mathematics) , psychology , chemistry , computer science , social psychology , telecommunications , mathematics , biochemistry , geometry
Background Ethanol ( E t OH ) administration decreases behavioral inhibition in human subjects, assessed using cued G o/ N o‐ G o tasks, in which an unreliable cue suggests whether participants will be required to respond or not when a signal occurs. Few studies have examined E t OH 's effects on behavioral inhibition in animals, and those that have done so have used G o/ N o‐ G o tasks in which no warning cue was provided. Methods Two cohorts of male L ong‐ E vans rats were trained and tested on 2 different G o/ N o‐ G o procedures with differing ratios of G o to N o‐ G o trials (25 to 75 and 50 to 50). Using a within‐subjects design, each rat was administered 0.0, 0.63, 0.95, and 1.27 g/kg of E t OH (i.p.) on 3 separate occasions according to an incomplete L atin s quare. An additional experiment examined the effects of reducing the amount of sucrose given for correct responses to either the G o or the N o‐ G o signal in the absence of E t OH administration. Results Acute intraperitoneal E t OH administration dose‐dependently decreased responding during the N o‐ G o signal (false alarms), the G o signal (hits), and responding prior to the occurrence of either signal (precue response rate). These effects were more pronounced in rats with the 50 to 50 ratio. Reducing the amount of sucrose presented generally led to a decrease in responding, although this effect was also moderated by the G o to N o‐ G o ratio employed and the contingency relationship (reduced sucrose for correct G o trial responding or for correct N o‐ G o trial response withholding). Conclusions Acute E t OH administration does not decrease behavioral inhibition in rats in this task. Rather E t OH appears to dose‐dependently decrease behavior in general, possibly by reducing the efficacy of the sucrose reinforcer, as both E t OH administration and sucrose reduction for G o trials yielded similar patterns of behavioral responding in this task in rats.