Giri Atanu, Batson Serina A, Macias Andrea Y, Heaton Cory N, Reyes Neftali F, Salcido Alexis A, Davila Luis D, Rakocevic Lara I, Beck Dirk W, Ibañez Alcalá Raquel J, Hossain Safa B, Vara Paulina, Drammis Sabrina M, Negishi Kenichiro, Rosales Adrianna E, O'Dell Laura E, Moschak Travis M, Goosens Ki A, Friedman Alexander
bioRxiv. 2024 Sep 26:2024.09.24.614857. doi: 10.1101/2024.09.24.614857.
Alcohol use, especially at high consumption levels, can lead to irrational decision-making. In humans, this can lead to harmful outcomes often seen in the context of driving under the influence and or aggressive behavior. To date, the field is lacking comprehensive animal models to examine the impact of alcohol use on decision making in rodents, particularly to examine sex differences in choice behavior. To address this issue, the present study examined the effects of acute alcohol consumption during a behavioral approach-avoidance task that captures momentary changes in decision-making behavior and choice selection in female and male rats.
Our team has developed a novel behavioral protocol involving a concurrent choice to consume four different concentrations of alcohol and sucrose combinations. During the task, female or male rats can approach or avoid drinking solutions in four distinct corners of our test apparatus. The solutions were prepared in inverse concentrations (higher sucrose was paired with lower alcohol and vice versa) so that the rodents pursue minimal alcohol use by consuming the higher sucrose concentrations or higher concentrations of alcohol by drinking the lower sucrose concentrations. The animals also have the option to avoid drinking alcohol by not approaching any of the drinking cups. Behavior and choice were tracked during task performance involving different solution concentrations of alcohol and sucrose.
The choice of consuming different concentrations of alcohol or sucrose resulted in sex-dependent differences in an approach-avoid trade-off pattern of behavior that was sensitive to different concentrations of alcohol/sucrose combinations. Notably, males were greatly affected by the introduction of alcohol into the task environment, approaching higher alcohol concentrations significantly more often than the non-alcohol containing options. In contrast, females choice patterns and task performance were largely unchanged during alcohol and non-alcohol containing tasks. Regardless of sex, we identify a novel method for identifying individual subject decision-making abnormalities during and after alcohol consumption.
This research reveals a novel approach for examining the effects of acute alcohol exposure during a trade-off task, with decision patterns being more impacted by alcohol use in males as compared to females. We also offer the field a novel approach for identifying individual abnormalities in decision making behavior with the presentation of alcohol. Future research can explore these abnormal patterns in both acute and chronic alcohol conditions to develop methods for identifying subjects at-risk for developing an alcohol use disorder and the deleterious impact of alcohol on rational decision making.
饮酒，尤其是高剂量饮酒，会导致非理性决策。在人类中，这可能会导致在酒后驾车和/或攻击性行为等情况下常见的有害后果。迄今为止，该领域缺乏全面的动物模型来研究饮酒对啮齿动物决策的影响，特别是研究选择行为中的性别差异。为了解决这个问题，本研究在一个行为趋避任务中检测了急性酒精摄入的影响，该任务捕捉了雌性和雄性大鼠决策行为和选择的瞬间变化。
我们的团队开发了一种新颖的行为方案，涉及同时选择饮用四种不同浓度的酒精和蔗糖组合。在任务过程中，雌性或雄性大鼠可以在我们测试装置的四个不同角落接近或避开饮用溶液。溶液以相反的浓度配制（较高的蔗糖与较低的酒精配对，反之亦然），以便啮齿动物通过消耗较高浓度的蔗糖来尽量减少酒精摄入，或者通过饮用较低浓度的蔗糖来摄入较高浓度的酒精。动物也可以选择不接近任何一个饮水杯来避免饮酒。在涉及不同酒精和蔗糖浓度溶液的任务执行过程中，对行为和选择进行跟踪。
选择饮用不同浓度的酒精或蔗糖导致了行为的趋避权衡模式出现性别差异，这种差异对不同浓度的酒精/蔗糖组合敏感。值得注意的是，雄性在任务环境中引入酒精后受到很大影响，比不含酒精的选项更频繁地接近较高浓度的酒精。相比之下，雌性的选择模式和任务表现在含酒精和不含酒精的任务中基本不变。无论性别如何，我们确定了一种在酒精摄入期间和之后识别个体受试者决策异常的新方法。
本研究揭示了一种在权衡任务中检测急性酒精暴露影响的新方法，与雌性相比，酒精使用对雄性决策模式的影响更大。我们还为该领域提供了一种通过呈现酒精来识别决策行为个体异常的新方法。未来的研究可以在急性和慢性酒精条件下探索这些异常模式，以开发识别有酒精使用障碍风险的受试者的方法，以及酒精对理性决策的有害影响。
