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Updated: Aug 25, 2026
Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Quantification of Social Behavior in Adult Rats
Published on: December 14, 2014
Multiple binge alcohol consumption during rat adolescence increases anxiety but does not impair retention in the
Miroljub Popović1, María Caballero-Bleda, Luis Puelles
1Departamento de Anatomía Humana y Psicobiología, Facultad de Medicina, Campus Universitario de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain. miroljub@um.es
Abstract:
We investigated the effect of binge alcohol consumption on anxiety-related behavior and memory in adolescent male Wistar rats. Three consecutive daily sessions of ethanol administration (5 g/kg) were repeated weekly for 4 weeks. The retention of passive avoidance was measured weekly, 48 h following the treatment. Three days after the last memory test a novel object exploration test was done. There was no significant difference in step-through latency between the groups, but the ethanol-treated group displayed a significantly higher incidence of defecation, and an increased number of boluses during the passive avoidance test. The latency to explore a novel object was also higher, while the duration of exploration was significantly lower. Together, these data suggest that binge alcohol consumption in adolescent rats does not impair their memory in passive avoidance tasks, but may significantly increase their anxiety.
