Dose-dependent effects of alcohol injections on omission-contingency learning have an inverted-U pattern

Previous examinations of the long-term effects of alcohol exposure on omission-contingency learning have produced mixed results across different age or sex groups, with evidence for faster learning or no effect. However, none of these experiments made comparisons using the same exposure-dose across the age/sex groups. Here, we exposed rats to 6 weeks of alcohol injections (3 days/week, 1.75 or 3.5 g/kg/24-h, i.p. broken up into 2 injections/day) in adolescent/early adult males or females (PND27-66) or adult males (PND62-101). We then tested the rats in autoshaping and omission-contingency tasks. In contrast to our hypotheses, the low 1.75-g/kg/24-h dose led to slower omission learning and the higher 3.5-g/kg/24-h dose had no effect. There were no age- or sex-differences in omission learning. Additionally, during autoshaping training, rats exposed in adolescence/early adulthood had a faster shift to sign-tracking in their sign-tracking/goal-tracking ratios than rats exposed in adulthood, with no consistent effect of alcohol exposure or sex-differences. Our results suggest complex effects of alcohol on the neural substrates of omission-contingency learning at different doses, which will require future investigation.