NEONATAL RESPONSIVENESS TO ALCOHOL ODOR AND INFANT ALCOHOL INTAKE AS A FUNCTION OF ALCOHOL EXPERIENCE DURING LATE-GESTATION

It has been previously suggested that maternal alcohol intoxication du ring the last days of pregnancy promotes fetal experiences that includ e chemosensory processing of the drug. In this study pregnant Wistar-d erived rats were administered saline or one of two alcohol doses (1 or 2 g/kg) during gestational days 17-20. Immediately after birth, pups were tested in regard to motor-eliciting properties of the odor of amn iotic fluid or alcohol, or of these stimuli presented as a configurati on. Saline controls showed significantly shorter duration of overall m otor activity and head movements when stimulated with the biological c ue (amniotic fluid) than when exposed to a novel stimulus (ethanol alo ne or configured with the amniotic fluid). The opposite pattern was fo und in pups with prenatal experience with the higher alcohol dose. In a second experiment, the impact of similar alcohol treatments on infan t consumption of different tastants, including alcohol and a configura tion of sucrose and quinine, was tested. This configuration appears to mimic psychophysical properties of ethanol. Consumption of water, suc rose, or quinine was unaffected by the prenatal status of the subjects . Antenatal alcohol experience with the lower alcohol dose (1 g/kg) in creased both alcohol and sucrose-quinine consumption. The 2 g/kg alcoh ol animals also ingested more sucrose-quinine relative to saline contr ols. As a whole, the results confirm the hypothesis that an intrauteri ne alcohol sensory memory selectively affects neonatal recognition of the alcohol's olfactory attributes and infant intake of either alcohol or solutions that share certain sensory equivalence with this psychop harmacological agent. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.