Voluntary alcohol consumption during distinct phases of adolescence differentially alters adult fear acquisition, extinction and renewal in male and female rats

Stress. 2023 Nov;26(1):2278315. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2023.2278315. Epub 2023 Nov 5.ABSTRACTAlcohol use during adolescence coincides with elevated risks of stress-related impairment in adults, particularly via disrupted developmental trajectories of vulnerable corticolimbic and mesolimbic systems involved in fear processing. Prior work has investigated the impact of binge-like alcohol consumption on adult fear and stress, but less is known about whether voluntarily consumed alcohol imparts differential effects based on adolescence phases and biological sex. Here, adolescent male and female Long Evans rats were granted daily access to alcohol (15%) during either early (Early-EtOH; P25-45) or late adolescence (Late-EtOH; P45-55) using a modified drinking-in-the-dark design. Upon adulthood (P75-80), rats were exposed to a three-context (ABC) fear renewal procedure. We found that male and female Early-EtOH rats showed faster acquisition of fear but less freezing during early phases of extinction and throughout fear renewal. In the extinction period specifically, Early-EtOH rats showed normal levels of freezing in the presence of fear-associated cues, but abnormally low freezing immediately after cue offset, suggesting a key disruption in contextual processing and/or novelty seeking brought by early adolescent binge consumption. While the effects of alcohol were most pronounced in the Early-EtOH rats (particularly in females), Late-EtOH rats displayed some changes in fear behavior...
Source: Stress - Category: Research Authors: Source Type: research