Tolerance to alcohol's anticonvulsant effect is not under Pavlovian control

Tolerance to the anticonvulsant effect of alcohol has been shown to be contingent on the presence of convulsive stimulation during the period of intoxication. In the present experiments, manipulation of the environmental stimuli associated with alcohol administration had no effect on the development of tolerance to alcohol's anticonvulsant effect in kindled rats. Such tolerance was found not to be specific to the alcohol-predictive environment, nor was its development retarded by pre-exposing the subjects to an environment that was subsequently associated with alcohol administration. Moreover, an injection of saline to tolerant subjects in the alcohol-predictive environment did not elicit a conditioned compensatory increase in seizure duration. Thus, the Pavlovian theory of drug tolerance cannot account for the contingent tolerance that develops to alcohol's anticonvulsant effect.