Abstract
Alcohol abuse can have devastating effects on social relationships. In particular, discrepant patterns of heavy alcohol consumption are associated with increased rates of separation and divorce. Previous studies have attempted to model these effects of alcohol using socially monogamous prairie voles. These studies showed that alcohol consumption can inhibit the formation of pair bonds in this species. While these findings indicated that alcohol’s effects on social attachments can involve biological mechanisms, the formation of pair bonds does not properly model long-term human attachments. To overcome this caveat, this study explored whether discordant or concordant alcohol consumption between individuals within established pairs affects maintenance of pair bonds in male prairie voles. Male and female prairie voles were allowed to form a pair bond for 1 week. Following this 1-week cohabitation period, males received access to 10% continuous ethanol; meanwhile, their female partners had access to either alcohol and water or just water. When there was a discrepancy in alcohol consumption, male prairie voles showed a decrease in partner preference (PP). Conversely, when concordant drinking occurred, males showed no inhibition in PP. Further analysis revealed a decrease in oxytocin immunoreactivity in the paraventricular nucleus of alcohol-exposed males that was independent of the drinking status of their female partners. On the other hand, only discordant alcohol consumption resulted in an increase of FosB immunoreactivity in the periaqueductal gray of male voles, a finding suggesting a potential involvement of this brain region in the effects of alcohol on maintenance of pair bonds. Our studies provide the first evidence that alcohol has effects on established pair bonds and that partner drinking status plays a large role in these effects.
Highlights
Alcohol is often used as a “social lubricant” to enhance social bonds
An effect of alcohol on paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus (PVN) oxytocin levels could not completely explain the difference in partner preference (PP) between these groups, suggesting that other systems are involved in the effects of discordant drinking on pair-bond maintenance
This study investigated how discordant and concordant alcohol drinking influences established pair bonds in male prairie voles
Summary
Alcohol abuse can have detrimental effects on certain social bonds. Among such affected social bonds are long-term relationships between spouses. Heavy alcohol use during a marriage has been associated with decreased marital satisfaction and increased rate of divorce [2,3,4,5,6]. It has been shown that martial dissatisfaction [8,9,10] and divorce rates [11,12,13] tend to increase when there is a discrepancy in husband and wife drinking patterns, but not when the Alcohol and Pair-Bond Maintenance spouses drink in concordance. Given the high prevalence of alcohol consumption in long-term relationships, it is important to understand whether biological mechanisms contribute to the effect of discrepancies in alcohol intake on separation rates
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