Ethanol facilitation of short-term memory in adult rats with a disturbed circadian cycle

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 3-month ethanol treatment on olfactory social memory test performance using two inter-exposure intervals [30 min: short-term recognition (STR); or 120 min: long-term recognition (LTR)] in adults rats with a disturbed circadian cycle (DCC). Ethanol treatment both in ethanol-preferring and -non-preferring groups improved the STR task compared to control rats. However, LTR procedure triggered the opposite tendency. Moreover, no differences between control rats with DCC and those with normal diurnal rhythm in STR and LTR paradigms were observed. Our results suggest that, under some conditions, alcohol facilitates short-term memory in adult rats.