Abstract
The study used an animal model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) to investigate the impact of alcohol exposure during a period equivalent to all three trimesters in humans on social recognition memory. It was hypothesized that the effects on specific aspects of social recognition memory would be sexually dimorphic. This study exposed rats to ethanol during both the prenatal and early postnatal periods. Two control groups included a group exposed to the administration procedures but not ethanol and a non-treated group. At approximately 90 days, all rats were tested repeatedly in a test of social recognition memory with a juvenile animal of the same sex. Experimental rats of both sexes were allowed to investigate an unknown juvenile for either 2, 3 or 5 min and then, after a delay of 30, 60, 120 and 180 min, were allowed to investigate the same juvenile for 5 min. Male rats investigated the juvenile for much longer than female rats. Ethanol-exposed male rats showed a deficit in recognition memory that was evident with longer delays when the initial investigation time was either 2- or 3-min long. In contrast, ethanol-exposed female rats showed a deficit in recognition memory only when the initial investigation period was of 2 min. Measurement of oxytocin receptor binding in the amygdala region indicated that ethanol exposure lowered oxytocin receptor binding in females but not males. The results suggest that ethanol exposure during development caused a deficit in memory duration but not encoding in males and a deficit in encoding but not memory duration in females. The deficit in ethanol-exposed females may be related to changes in oxytocin receptors in the amygdala.
Highlights
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) can occur in the offspring of women who drink heavily during pregnancy and can include a wide array of behavioral and cognitive deficits (Streissguth et al, 1980; 1994)
One male and one female per litter were used in the test of social recognition memory and in the oxytocin receptorbinding assay; remaining animals in the litters were assigned to different studies
Oxytocin receptor binding An ANOVA with group and sex as between factors was conducted on oxytocin receptor binding in the amygdala region and we found a significant interaction between group and sex (F (2, 45) = 6.43, P < 0.01)
Summary
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) can occur in the offspring of women who drink heavily during pregnancy and can include a wide array of behavioral and cognitive deficits (Streissguth et al, 1980; 1994). Animal models of FASD have shown that social behavior is disrupted by alcohol exposure during development and that this effect is due to the teratogenic effects of alcohol (Kelly et al, 2000). While social behavior is very complex in humans, it is possible to use animal models to investigate the nature and neural basis of deficits in the social behavior induced by alcohol exposure during development. While the impact of alcohol is to the same degree in both sexes, social recognition memory is clearly sexually dimorphic with respect to behavior (Thor and Holloway, 1982; Hlinak, 1993) and the neural bases (Blutheet al., 1990; van Wimersma Greidanus and Maigret, 1996). Given the behavioral and neural differences in the social recognition memory between the sexes and given that alcohol exposure during development has been shown to reduce testosterone in males and estrogen in females, it is quite likely that the specific manner in which alcohol exposure during development impacts social recognition memory in the two sexes may differ
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