Prenatal exposure to ethanol disrupts spatial memory: effect of the training-testing delay period

The present study investigated how variations in the period of delay between training and testing in the Morris water maze task affect the use of spatial memory in adult rats that were prenatally exposed to ethanol. Previous results utilizing the Morris water maze task have shown that prenatal, or early postnatal, exposure to ethanol produces deficits in the use of spatial memory, a type of memory that is dependent on an intact hippocampus. However, in these prior studies the delay period between the training of animals and the testing of spatial memory is typically fixed at only 1 day. In the current study, which utilized a revised training procedure within the Morris water maze task, the period of delay between training and testing was altered such that it was either 1 day or 3 days. Following the 3-day delay, different levels of prenatal exposure to ethanol impaired the use of spatial memory. In contrast, following the 1-day delay, prenatal exposure to ethanol failed to impair the use of spatial memory. The present study thus shows that prenatal exposure to ethanol differentially affects spatial memory in the Morris water maze task depending on the period of delay between training and testing.