Prenatal alcohol exposure causes attention deficits in male rats.
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are often diagnosed with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These children show increases in reaction time (RT) variability and false alarms on choice reaction time (CRT) tasks. In this study, adult rats prenatally exposed to ethanol were trained to perform a CRT task. An analysis of the distribution of RTs obtained from the CRT task found that rats with a history of prenatal ethanol exposure had more variable RT distributions, possibly because of lapses of attention. In addition, it was found that, similar to children with FASD, the ethanol-exposed rats had more false alarms. Thus, rats with prenatal ethanol exposure show attention deficits that are similar to those of children with FASD and ADHD.
Hausknecht
Kathryn A
KA
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Acheson
Ashley
A
Farrar
Andrew M
AM
Kieres
Artur K
AK
Shen
Roh-Yu
RY
Richards
Jerry B
JB
Sabol
Karen E
KE
D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000633:toxicity*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D063647:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000662:veterinary; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011930:Reaction Time
D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D000431:Ethanol