Lasting Consequences of Binge Drinking: Effect of Adolescent Alcohol Exposure on Autoshaping in Rats (2012)

Undergraduates: Emma Johnson, Katie Joa, Michael Gonzalez Leah Townsend William Chapman

Faculty Advisor: Donita Robinson
Department: Biology

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Adolescents may be more susceptible to drug addiction than adults due to differences in neurobiological development and an increased propensity to take risks, and the lifetime risk of alcohol use disorder is increased the younger the age that people start drinking. In this study we tested the effect of previous alcohol exposure on rats’ response to alcohol-predicting cues in a conditioned pavlovian approach (CPA) paradigm. The animals were first exposed by oral gavage to either an ethanol solution or a control solution every other day during adolescence. Upon reaching adulthood, all animals were run on a CPA program where 25 conditioned stimuli (CS – a cue light and lever) were paired with 25 presentations of the unconditioned stimulus (US – a chocolate Ensure®/ethanol solution). Sessions were coded for latency to approach and time spent in proximity to both the CS (sign-tracking) and the US (goal-tracking). We found that there is no effect of adolescent treatment on whether the animals show predominantly sign-tracking or goal-tracking behavior. When administered naltrexone, a drug proposed to reduce ethanol-reinforced behavior, all rats are slower to approach the cue than during saline control sessions. These results point to naltrexone’s potential to reduce the incentive salience of alcohol-predicting cues.