Prolonged alcohol consumption in the rat: Absence of retrograde amnesia for an avoidance response

Abstract

Prolonged alcohol consumption (18 weeks) did not result in the disruption of retention of a previously learned avoidance response. Rats were pretrained to a criterion of 80% correct responses on a shuttlebox avoidance task and subsequently divided into three groups matched for performance and weight. One group received ethanol incorporated into a liquid diet which served as the source of calories and fluid. One control group was individually pair-fed the identical liquid diet except sucrose was isocalorically substituted for ethanol. A second control group was maintained on pelleted laboratory food and water. After 18 weeks of maintenance on the respective experimental dietts, all rats were given laboratory food and water ad lib. Three months after the ethanol-containing and sucrose-containing diets were replaced with laboratory food and water, the rats were tested for retention of the avoidance response. It was found that the groups were statistically indistinguishable on the measures of retention used. The results were interpreted as being in agreement with clinical descriptions of alcoholic Korsakoff patients.