Effects of acute and chronic ethanol exposure on spatial cognitive processing and hippocampal function in the rat

Animals, including rats, have a predisposition to process and use spatial i nformation to organize and guide behavior. The hippocampus and related stru ctures are critically involved in this function, and, consequently, it has been proposed that one function of the hippocampus is to construct "spatial cognitive maps" of environments. Lesions to the hippocampus or its connect ions produce a pattern of alterations in behavior which include shifts from the use of spatial information to guide behavior to the use of cue- or tax on-based information to guide behavior. Recently it was demonstrated that e thanol interacts with a specific group of neurotransmitter systems, i.e., N -methyl-D-aspartate receptors and GABA(A) receptors that exist in high prop ortions in the hippocampus and related structures. In this review, we seek to summarize the literature demonstrating that one effect of acute and chro nic ethanol exposure is to produce behavioral alterations that are striking ly similar to those found following lesions to the hippocampal system. Furt hermore, cellular and anatomical alterations resulting from similar ethanol exposure paradigms will be reviewed and offered as possible mechanisms for producing the alterations in behavior. Finally, several unanswered questio ns concerning the interaction between ethanol and spatial cognitive process ing will be identified. Hippocampus 2000; 10: 122-130. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.