Ruixiang Wang, Connor D Martin, Anna L Lei, Kathryn A Hausknecht, Marisa Turk, Veronika Micov, Francis Kwarteng, Keita Ishiwari, Saida Oubraim, An-Li Wang, Jerry B Richards, Samir Haj-Dahmane, Roh-Yu Shen
BACKGROUND: Individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) often show processing deficits in all sensory modalities. Using an operant light reinforcement model, we tested whether prenatal ethanol exposure (PE) alters operant responding to elicit a contingent sensory stimulus-light onset (turning on the light) and habituation to this behavior in rats. We also explored whether postnatal environmental enrichment could ameliorate PE-induced deficits. METHODS: Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were gavaged twice/day with 0 or 3 g/kg/treatment ethanol (15% w/v) during gestational days 8-20, mimicking second-trimester heavy PE in humans...
May 2022: Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research