Ontogenetic differences in ethanol-induced impairment of context and CS learning

Abstract

A hypothesized action of ethanol is that it reduces processing of contextual stimuli. Given previous reports of age-related differences in stimulus selection, in the present study we utilized a conditioned suppression paradigm within an enhanced sensory context to examine the effects of ethanol on context and tone learning in preweanling anti adult Sprague-Dawley rats as a function of tone-footshock interval. Although ethanol had some impairing influence on both context and tone conditioning in adults, lone responding nevertheless remained evident, whereas context conditioning was abolished regardless of the tone-footshock interval. In preweanlings, both context and tone responding were abolished by ethanol unless training occurred with contiguous tone footshock pairings. It is suggested that age specific modes of encoding are differentially sensitive to the effects of alcohol.