Prenatal ethanol exposure fails to affect stimulus reactivity in the rat

Three groups of male Long-Evans rats, that were the offspring of dams maintained throughout pregnancy on a liquid diet in which 35% of the calories were derived from ethanol, pair fed an isocaloric liquid diet that had maltose-dextrin substituted for the ethanol, or maintained on lab chow and water were used as subjects. All subjects were nursed by foster mothers maintained on lab chow and water throughout pregnancy and lactation. The groups were not found to differ on open field activity or number of approaches to four stimulus objects in an open field at 26-30 days of age, on spontaneous alternation at 50-55 days of age or on response to a novel alley at 55 days of age. It was concluded that in the rat, prenatal ethanol exposure does not result in demonstrable changes in responsivity to stimuli in rats tested after 26 days of age.