The Interaction of Gestational and Postnatal Ethanol Experience on the Adolescent and Adult Odor-Mediated Responses to Ethanol in Observer and Demonstrator Rats

摘要

BackgroundGestational ethanol exposure enhances the adolescent reflexive sniffing response to ethanol odor. Postnatal exposures of naïve animals as either an observer (i.e., conspecific) or demonstrator (i.e, intoxicated peer) using a social transmission of food odor preference paradigm also yields enhanced odor-mediated responses. Studies on the interaction of fetal and postnatal exposures using the social transmission paradigm have been limited to the responses of observers. When combined the enhanced response is greater than either form of exposure alone and, in observer females, yields adult persistence. The absence of a male effect is noteworthy given that chemosensory mechanisms are suggested to be an important antecedent factor in the progression of ethanol preference. Observers gain odor information on the breath of the demonstrator through social interaction. Demonstrators experience the pharmacologic properties of ethanol along with retronasal and hematogenic olfaction. Thus, we tested whether augmentation of the fetal-ethanol induced behavioral response with postnatal exposure as a demonstrator differed from that as an observer. We also examined whether re-exposure as a demonstrator yields persistence in both sexes.