Abstract
Rodents exposed to alcohol prenatally have been shown to exhibit impairments of memory and attention. In this study, we investigated whether ethanol-induced attention deficits evaluated by use of operant behavior tests for rat offspring were ameliorated by treatments of several psychotropic drugs. Pregnant Wistar rats were separated into three groups from gestation day 8 through 20: 20% ethanol treated (6g/kg/day), 30% sucrose treated and saline treated via intragastric intubation. The sucrose and saline groups received the same volume of ethanol, respectively. Operant experimental chambers that have two lever and two lights were used in this test. Ability of attention in these offspring was evaluated using choice reaction time (CRT) and percent correct. Rats were trained on the CRT task with 100 trials per day for 20 days. Prenatal ethanol exposure resulted in a siginificantly longer CRT than those of the other two groups, however, there were no effects on percent correct. Moreover, in ethanol exposed rats, oral treatments of methylphenidate and fluvoxamine, which are inhibitors of dopamine and serotonin transporters, there was a significantly shortened CRT compared with solvent treatments 20 min before the tasks, but donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor, had no effect. It was found that attention deficits caused by prenatal ethanol exposure were ameliorated by methylphenidate and fluvoxamine, but not donepezil. These findings suggest that rats exposured to ethanol prenatally were likely to suffer impairment in their dopaminergic and serotoninergic rather than their cholinergic neuronal systems. [J Physiol Sci. 2007;57 Suppl:S135]
