Alcohol-mediated tactile conditioned aversions in infant rats: devaluation of conditioning through alcohol-sucrose associations.
Three experiments were conducted to assess the plasticity of ethanol-mediated conditioned aversions to a tactile stimulus in infant rats. Ten- and 11-day-old rats first acquired an aversion to a texture, by virtue of its pairing with alcohol-induced intoxication. This first conditioning phase was followed by an associative devaluation procedure, a second phase in which sucrose was intraorally infused during alcohol-induced intoxication. Pups were then tested for their texture preference. Results indicated that infant rats readily express conditioned aversion to a tactile cue as a result of tactile-alcohol pairings and that this associative learning was not state dependent. When alcohol-texture conditioning was followed by sucrose-alcohol pairings, the magnitude of the texture aversion was dramatically reduced (Experiments 1 and 2). In Experiment 3 citric acid rather than sucrose was paired with alcohol intoxication following texture-alcohol pairings. The results indicated that this procedure strengthened texture conditioned aversions in terms of increased resistance to extinction. Taken as a whole these studies indicate that infants rapidly acquire alcohol-mediated texture aversions and that this memory is malleable and can be reduced or potentiated through manipulation of the representation of alcohol's unconditioned properties.
Molina
J C
JC
Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, New York 13902-6000, USA.
Bannoura
M D
MD
Chotro
M G
MG
McKinzie
D L
DL
Arnold
H M
HM
Spear
N E
NE
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010465:Perception / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013395:Sucrose / Q000494:pharmacology*
D000431:Ethanol; D013395:Sucrose