Department of Psychology, College of William & Mary, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2013 May;55(4):352-60. doi: 10.1002/dev.21035. Epub 2012 May 2.
The developing hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of alcohol, and behavioral deficits on hippocampus-dependent tasks have been reported following neonatal alcohol exposure in rodents. Previously, we have found that trace fear conditioning (a hippocampus-dependent learning task) is disrupted in rats exposed to alcohol during postnatal days (PD) 4-9, although delay fear conditioning is not. The present study indicates that this impairment in trace fear conditioning, previously only measured during adolescence, persists into adulthood but only in females. Animals were exposed to 5.0 g/kg/day alcohol on PD 4-9 and were trained on either PD 30 or 65. Alcohol exposure significantly impaired trace conditioning in both sexes at PD 30. In animals trained as adults, the deficit in trace was only observed in female subjects, suggesting that although males exhibit an age-related recovery of function, alcohol-induced trace conditioning deficits are more persistent in female Sprague-Dawley rats.
发育中的海马体特别容易受到酒精的毒性影响，在啮齿动物中，新生儿期暴露于酒精后，会出现依赖海马体的行为缺陷。此前，我们发现，在接受酒精暴露的大鼠中，痕迹恐惧条件反射（一种依赖海马体的学习任务）受到破坏，尽管延迟恐惧条件反射没有受到破坏。本研究表明，这种痕迹恐惧条件反射的损伤，以前只在青春期测量过，在成年期仍然存在，但只在雌性中存在。动物在出生后第 4-9 天接受 5.0 g/kg/天的酒精暴露，并在第 30 天或第 65 天接受训练。酒精暴露在第 30 天显著损害了两性的痕迹条件反射。在成年期接受训练的动物中，只有雌性动物观察到痕迹缺陷，这表明尽管雄性表现出与年龄相关的功能恢复，但酒精引起的痕迹条件反射缺陷在雌性 Sprague-Dawley 大鼠中更为持久。
