INIMEC - CONICET   05467
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACION MEDICA MERCEDES Y MARTIN FERREYRA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
PRENATAL ETHANOL EXPOSURE AFFECTS LEARNING AND EXTINCTION IN ADOLESCENT RATS
Autor/es:
FABIO, MARIA CAROLINA; MOLINA, JUAN CARLOS; SPEAR, NORMAN; PAUTASSI, RICARDO MARCOS
Reunión:
Congreso; I Joint Meeting on Alcohol And Other Drugs of Abuse: from Molecules to Human Disorders; 2013
Resumen:
Epidemiological and pre-clinical data indicate that prenatal ethanol exposure is a risk factor for heightened alcohol use and abuse later in life. Fetuses perceive the chemosensory properties of ethanol following maternal intoxication and can learn that these odor cues predict the rewarding effect of the drug, leading to heightened seeking and intake. We recently observed that adolescents prenatally exposed to ethanol (PE) drunk more ethanol and exhibited reduced neural activity in infralimbic cortex, an area associated with extinction of associative learning. To analyze potential deficits in learning or extinction, PE animals were assessed in litium-chloride (LiCl) induced condition taste aversion. On postnatal day (PD) 30, saccharine intake (conditioned stimulus [CS]) in PE, PV (prenatal vehicle) and UT (prenatal untreated) adolescents was followed by the administration of LiCl (unconditioned stimulus [US]; 0.1M, 0.2M and 0.3M). After 24h, animals were re-exposed to the CS alone. Five extinction trials were conducted. LiCl-induced CTA was observed in a dose-dependent manner. UT controls extinguished this learning at session 3, whereas CTA in PE animals persisted for four sessions. In a subsequent experiment adolescent animals were trained in CTA induced by ethanol (2.5 g/kg i.p.). PV and UT animals exhibit reliable ethanol-induced conditioned taste aversion, but expression of this phenomenon was blocked in adolescents exposed to ethanol in-utero. These results indicate that prenatal ethanol exposure alters sensitivity to the aversive effects of ethanol and affects extinction processes in associative tasks.