Swierzbinski Matthew E, Lazarchik Andrew R, Herberholz Jens
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
J Exp Biol. 2017 Apr 15;220(Pt 8):1516-1523. doi: 10.1242/jeb.154419.
The effects of alcohol on society can be devastating, both as an immediate consequence of acute intoxication and as a powerful drug of abuse. However, the neurocellular mechanisms of alcohol intoxication are still elusive, partly because of the complex interactions between alcohol and nervous system function. We found that juvenile crayfish are behaviorally sensitive to acute alcohol exposure and progress through stages that are strikingly similar to those of most other intoxicated organisms. Most surprisingly, we found that the social history of the animals significantly modified the acute effects of alcohol. Crayfish taken from a rich social environment became intoxicated more rapidly than animals that were socially isolated before alcohol exposure. In addition, we found that the modulation of intoxicated behaviors by prior social experience was paralleled on the level of individual neurons. These results significantly improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the interplay between social experience, alcohol intoxication and nervous system function.
酒精对社会的影响可能是毁灭性的，无论是作为急性中毒的直接后果，还是作为一种强大的滥用药物。然而，酒精中毒的神经细胞机制仍然难以捉摸，部分原因是酒精与神经系统功能之间存在复杂的相互作用。我们发现，幼年小龙虾对急性酒精暴露在行为上敏感，并且经历的阶段与大多数其他中毒生物的阶段惊人地相似。最令人惊讶的是，我们发现动物的社会经历显著改变了酒精的急性作用。来自丰富社会环境的小龙虾比在酒精暴露前处于社会隔离状态的动物更快中毒。此外，我们发现先前的社会经验对中毒行为的调节在单个神经元水平上也有体现。这些结果显著提高了我们对社会经验、酒精中毒和神经系统功能之间相互作用的潜在机制的理解。
