BEHAVIORAL ALTERATIONS INDUCED BY VOLUNTARY ETHANOL INTAKE AND NOISE EXPOSURE IN MALE RATS

BUJAN, GE; GUELMAN, LR; SERRA, HA; MOLINA, SJ

Modalidad Virtual

Congreso; XXXV Annual Virtual Meeting, Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2020

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Given that human adolescents usually consume ethanol (EtOH) in the presence of high noiseintensities, the use of an animal model could provide relevant data. Therefore, the aim of thepresent study was to assess whether both agents could produce changes in differentbehavioral parameters in adolescent rats.Male Wistar rats in early adolescence (28 days old) were subjected to voluntary EtOHconsumption for intermittent 24-hour periods for two weeks, using the two-bottle choiceparadigm (5% EtOH/1% sucrose). A subgroup was exposed to noise (2h, 95-97 dB) after thefirst week. All animals were evaluated on different behavioral tasks, including open field,elevated plus maze and inhibitory avoidance.Results showed a decrease in associative memory (AM) and an increase in anxiety-likebehaviors after noise exposure or EtOH intake, when compared with sham rats. Innoise-exposed animals that consumed EtOH, an increase in exploratory behavior was alsoobserved.These findings suggest that exposure to stressors such as noise or EtOH presented individuallymight trigger an increase in anxiety-like behaviors that seem to lead to a deficit in AM. Acounteraction of anxiety-related behaviors seems to be added when both agents are presenttogether, suggesting a compensation of the stressful effect.In conclusion, adolescence would represent a period of great vulnerability to physical andchemical agents that may interact to achieve more adaptive behavioral performance.