title: The Interaction of Ethanol Ingestion and Social Interaction with an Intoxicated Peer on the Odor-Mediated Response to the Drug in Adolescent Rats.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Using a social transmission of food preference paradigm in rats, we previously demonstrated that ethanol (EtOH) exposure during adolescence, as either an observer (interaction with an intoxicated conspecific) or demonstrator (intragastric infusion with EtOH), altered the reflexive odor-mediated responses to the drug. The 2 modes of exposure were equivalent in the magnitude of their effects. Human adolescents, however, are likely to experience the drug in a social setting as both an EtOH observer and demonstrator. That is, both interacting with an intoxicated peer and experiencing EtOH's postingestive consequences in conjunction with hematogenic olfaction. Therefore, we tested whether combined adolescent exposure as both an observer and demonstrator differed from either form of individual experience.
  
  
  METHODS
  Beginning on postnatal day (P) 29, naïve rats received EtOH or water exposures in a social interaction paradigm as either an observer, a demonstrator, or combined experience (where each animal in the interaction was, itself, an observer and demonstrator). Exposures occurred 4 times, once every 48 hours. On P37, the reflexive behavioral response to EtOH odor was tested, using whole-body plethysmography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The odor-mediated responses of adolescent EtOH observers, demonstrators, and combined exposure animals all significantly differed from controls. Compared to controls, however, the magnitude of the behavioral effect was greatest in the combined exposure animals. Moreover, combined exposure as both an EtOH observer and demonstrator significantly differed from either form of individual EtOH experience.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EtOH's component chemosensory qualities are known to be central contributors to its acceptance and increases in the acceptability of EtOH's odor, resulting from a social transmission experience, are predictive of enhanced EtOH avidity in adolescence. Our findings demonstrate that combined exposure as an observer and demonstrator, within a socially relevant framework, may represent a higher risk scenario for increased EtOH avidity in adolescence (and by extension adult persistence) as compared to the individual effects of direct ingestion or social experience with the drug.
authors.affiliation: Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine at Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Amber M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Eade
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York.|State University of New York Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center, Syracuse & Binghamton, New York.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Youngentob
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York.|State University of New York Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center, Syracuse & Binghamton, New York.|Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee.
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Youngentob
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012903:Smell / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Adolescent Ethanol Exposure; Adolescent Rat; Ethanol Ingestion; Odor-Mediated Response to Ethanol; Social Interaction