Recognition of food in weanling rats exposed to alcohol prenatally.
Offspring of rats fed a liquid diet containing ethanol during their pregnancies were compared to controls on a caloric discrimination test beginning at 22 days of age. All pups received simultaneous choice between a palatable, noncaloric diet and a similar diet containing starch. Each diet contained a distinctive flavor. To test for flavor preference learning, pups then received an extinction test: a simultaneous choice between two noncaloric diets, identical except for flavor. Prenatal alcohol exposure had no substantial effect on the caloric discrimination, and all groups preferentially ingested the starch diet on all test days. However, during the extinction test, alcohol-exposed pups showed a significantly weaker flavor preference than control pups. These data extend the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on learning and ingestive behavior to include solid food discriminations at the time of weaning.
Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, CA 92182-0350.
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D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D002149:Energy Intake; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014886:Weaning
D000431:Ethanol