Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Acute Or Chronic Ethanol Exposure During Adolescence On Behavioral Inhibition And Efficiency In A Modified Water Maze Task, Shawn K. Acheson, Craig Bearison, Mary-Louise Risher, Sabri H. Abdelwahab, Wilkie A. Wilson, H. Scott Swartzwelder

Biomedical Sciences

Ethanol is well known to adversely affect frontal executive functioning, which continues to develop throughout adolescence and into young adulthood. This is also a developmental window in which ethanol is misused by a significant number of adolescents. We examined the effects of acute and chronic ethanol exposure during adolescence on behavioral inhibition and efficiency using a modified water maze task. During acquisition, rats were trained to find a stable visible platform onto which they could escape. During the test phase, the stable platform was converted to a visible floating platform (providing no escape) and a new hidden platform was added …

Long-Term Effects Of Chronic Intermittent Ethanol Exposure In Adolescent And Adult Rats: Radial-Arm Maze Performance And Operant Food Reinforced Responding, Mary-Louise Risher, Rebekah L. Fleming, Nathalie Boutros, Svetlana Semenova, Wilkie A. Wilson, Edward D. Levin, Athina Markou, H. Scott Swartzwelder, Shawn K. Acheson

Biomedical Sciences

Background: Adolescence is not only a critical period of late-stage neurological development in humans, but is also a period in which ethanol consumption is often at its highest. Given the prevalence of ethanol use during this vulnerable developmental period we assessed the long-term effects of chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure during adolescence, compared to adulthood, on performance in the radial-arm maze (RAM) and operant food-reinforced responding in male rats.

Methodology/Principal Findings: Male Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to CIE (or saline) and then allowed to recover. Animals were then trained in either the RAM task or an operant task using …