Postnatal high-peak blood ethanol concentration and external cue-based discrimination learning and reversal in the preweanling rat: comparison with memory-based discrimination learning.
Postnatal exposure to ethanol that produces high-peak blood ethanol concentrations (HP-BEC) in artificially reared infant rats affects hippocampal neuroanatomy and discrimination learning based on memorial cues from a patterned (single) alternation (PA) schedule in preweanling rats (P. L. Greene, J. L. Diaz-Granados, & A. Amsel, 1992). In the present experiments, discrimination by preweanling rats exposed to ethanol in the same way was tested with nonmemorial, external cues. In this external cue-based discrimination and in its reversal, ethanol-exposed rats were not different from normal or artificially reared controls whether the cues were presented in a PA or random manner, although there was some evidence that the memorial cues from the PA schedule contributed to learning a discrimination based on external cues, suggesting that the deficit reported earlier in ethanol-exposed rats is a memorial deficit and not a general discrimination deficit.
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin 78712.
P L
PL
Greene
J L
JL
Diaz-Granados
A
A
Amsel
D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D063647:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009042:Motivation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012193:Reversal Learning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
D000431:Ethanol