ALCOHOL-MEDIATED TACTILE CONDITIONED AVERSIONS IN INFANT RATS - DEVALUATION OF CONDITIONING THROUGH ALCOHOL-SUCROSE ASSOCIATIONS

Three experiments were conducted to assess the plasticity of ethanol-m ediated conditioned aversions to a tactile stimulus in infant rats. Te n- and 11-day-old rats first acquired an aversion to a texture, by vir tue of its pairing with alcohol-induced intoxication. This first condi tioning phase was followed by an associative devaluation procedure, a second phase in which sucrose was intraorally infused during alcohol-i nduced intoxication. Pups were then tested for their texture preferenc e. Results indicated that infant rats readily express conditioned aver sion to a tactile cue as a result of tactile-alcohol pairings and that this associative learning was not state dependent. When alcohol-textu re conditioning was followed by sucrose-alcohol pairings, the magnitud e of the texture aversion was dramatically reduced (Experiments 1 and 2). In Experiment 3 citric acid rather than sucrose was paired with al cohol intoxication following texture-alcohol pairings. The results ind icated that this procedure strengthened texture conditioned aversions in terms of increased resistance to extinction. Taken as a whole these studies indicate that infants rapidly acquire alcohol-mediated textur e aversions and that this memory is malleable and can be reduced or po tentiated through manipulation of the representation of alcohol's unco nditioned properties. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.