ETHANOL ALTERS SPATIAL PROCESSING OF HIPPOCAMPAL PLACE CELLS - A MECHANISM FOR IMPAIRED NAVIGATION WHEN INTOXICATED

This study describes a new mechanism by which ethanol alters brain fun ction and may impair performance on tasks requiring spatial navigation . Recording electrophysiological activity from single neurons in the a wake, freely behaving animal, the present study shows that ethanol imp airs the ability of place cells in the hippocampus to process spatial information. The impairment by ethanol in spatial processing of place cells was remarkably similar to the impairment produced by lesions of afferents to the hippocampus, except that the effect of ethanol was re versible. Since lesions to hippocampal afferents that alter spatial pr ocessing of place cells concomitantly impair spatial navigation, the p resent results suggest that ethanol similarly impairs spatial navigati on by altering spatial processing of place cells. The present results have implications for the observation that ethanol impairs performance on navigational tasks that require spatial processing, such as automo bile driving.