Chronic ethanol and chlordiazepoxide: contrasting effects on reward learning.
Rats were exposed for one week to increasing concentrations of ethanol in a liquid diet, and were then maintained for a further 4 weeks on a 10% ethanol diet. Ten weeks after return to normal diet they were trained in a learning task in which three out of nine holes were consistently rewarded. The ex-ethanol-treated rats were slower to complete the task during the first week, compared with their control group and the differences were most marked on days 3 and 4, which were the days of most rapid improvement. On day 4 the ex-ethanol-treated rats made significantly more errors at rewarded holes. In contrast, rats that had been treated for 4 weeks with chlordiazepoxide (10 mg/kg/day) and then trained 10 weeks later on days 2 and 3 made significantly fewer errors of reference memory, and on day 2 made significantly fewer errors of working memory, compared with their control group.
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UMDS Division of Pharmacology, University of London, Guy's Hospital.
Mabbutt
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D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000818:Animals; D002707:Chlordiazepoxide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D012201:Reward; D013997:Time Factors
D002707:Chlordiazepoxide