A. Blokland et al., ABSENCE OF IMPAIRMENTS IN SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISCRIMINATION-LEARNING IN LEWIS RATS AFTER CHRONIC ETHANOL-CONSUMPTION, Pharmacology, biochemistry and behavior, 46(1), 1993, pp. 27-34
Many studies reported that chronic ethanol consumption leads to cognit
ive dysfunction in rodents. It has been suggested that the effects of
chronic ethanol consumption resemble those of aging because of the beh
avioral and neurochemical similarities between the two processes. The
present study examined the effects of a chronic ethanol treatment (20%
aqueous solution) in Lewis rats on performance in three different tas
ks: the Morris spatial navigation task, a cone-field task, and a tempo
ral discrimination task. Although an age-related deficit was found in
water escape learning, chronic ethanol consumption did not affect the
performance of adult and old rats. The results of this experiment were
, however, not conclusive. No differences between old control and etha
nol-treated rats were found for spatial (cone-field task) and temporal
discrimination learning. However, old ethanol-treated rats showed a t
ransient tendency to perseverate in the temporal discrimination task.
The present results are at variance with the generally found cognitive
impairments after chronic ethanol consumption using aqueous solutions
. It is suggested that the effects of ethanol could be related to stra
in of rat, task complexity, method of ethanol administering, and housi
ng conditions and may explain the discrepancy between results.