title: Alcohol enhances unprovoked 22-28 kHz USVs and suppresses USV mean frequency in High Alcohol Drinking (HAD-1) male rats.
abstract: Heightened emotional states increase impulsive behaviors such as excessive ethanol consumption in humans. Though positive and negative affective states in rodents can be monitored in real-time through ultrasonic vocalization (USV) emissions, few animal studies have focused on the role of emotional status as a stimulus for initial ethanol drinking. Our laboratory has recently developed reliable, high-speed analysis techniques to compile USV data during multiple-hour drinking sessions. Since High Alcohol Drinking (HAD-1) rats are selectively bred to voluntarily consume intoxicating levels of alcohol, we hypothesized that USVs emitted by HAD-1 rats would reveal unique emotional phenotypes predictive of alcohol intake and sensitive to alcohol experience. In this study, male HAD-1 rats had access to water, 15% and 30% EtOH or water only (i.e., Controls) during 8 weeks of daily 7-h drinking-in-the-dark (DID) sessions. USVs, associated with both positive (i.e., 50-55 kHz frequency-modulated or FM) and negative (i.e., 22-28 kHz) emotional states, emitted during these daily DID sessions were examined. Findings showed basal 22-28 kHz USVs were emitted by both EtOH-Naïve (Control) and EtOH-experienced rats, alcohol experience enhanced 22-28 kHz USV emissions, and USV acoustic parameters (i.e., mean frequency in kHz) of both positive and negative USVs were significantly suppressed by chronic alcohol experience. These data suggest that negative affective status initiates and maintains excessive alcohol intake in selectively bred HAD-1 rats and support the notion that unprovoked emissions of negative affect-associated USVs (i.e., 22-28 kHz) predict vulnerability to excessive alcohol intake in distinct rodent models.
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy, Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 2409 University Avenue, Stop A1915, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 2500 Speedway, Stop A4800, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Neha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thakore
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology, 108 E. Dean Keeton Avenue, Stop A8000, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 2500 Speedway, Stop A4800, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Reno
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy, Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 2409 University Avenue, Stop A1915, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 2500 Speedway, Stop A4800, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Rueben A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Gonzales
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology, 108 E. Dean Keeton Avenue, Stop A8000, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 2500 Speedway, Stop A4800, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schallert
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatric Research, Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.
authors.forename: Richard L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology, 108 E. Dean Keeton Avenue, Stop A8000, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: W Todd
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Maddox
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy, Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 2409 University Avenue, Stop A1915, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 2500 Speedway, Stop A4800, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Electronic address: duvauchelle@mail.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Christine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Duvauchelle
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000162:Acoustics; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000465:Algorithms; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004326:Drinking / Q000187:drug effects; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012646:Self Administration; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Drinking-in-the-dark; Emotional status; Excessive alcohol intake; Negative affect; WAAVES