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Effects of ethanol and caffeine on behavior in C57BL/6 mice in the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task
Danielle Gulick1, Thomas J Gould
1Department of Psychology, Neuroscience Program, Center for Substance Abuse Research, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA.
Introduction:
Caffeine is frequently consumed concurrent to or immediately following ethanol consumption. Identifying how caffeine and ethanol interact to modulate behavior is essential to understanding the co-use of these drugs. The plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PMDAT) allows within-subject measurement of learning, anxiety, and locomotion.
Methods:
For training, each mouse was placed in the center of the plus-maze for 5 min, and each time that the mouse entered the aversive enclosed arm, a light and white noise were turned on. At testing, each mouse was returned to the center of the maze for 3 min. No cues were turned on during testing.
Results:
Ethanol (1.0-1.4 g/kg) dose-dependently decreased anxiety and learning, and increased locomotion. Caffeine (5.0-40.0 mg/kg) dose-dependently increased anxiety and decreased locomotion and learning. Caffeine failed to reverse ethanol-induced learning deficits. However, 1.4 g/kg ethanol blocked the anxiogenic effect of caffeine.
Discussion:
Although caffeine and ethanol interact to modulate behavior in the PMDAT, caffeine does not reverse ethanol-induced learning deficits. Ethanol-induced anxiolysis may contribute to alcohol consumption, while ethanol's blockade of caffeine-induced anxiogenesis may contribute to co-use.
