TERATOLOGY 29:325-331(1984) zy Taste Aversion Learning in Preweanling Rats Exposed to Alcohol Prenatally EDWARD P. zyxwvuts RTLEY, SUSAN BARRON, CYNTHIA D. DRISCOLL, AND JAW-SY CHEN zyxwvuts Department zyxwvuts of Psychology, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New zyxwvuts York 12222 ABSTRACT The effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the development of a conditioned taste aversion were examined in preweanling rat pups. Mothers of these pups were fed isocaloric liquid diets containing either 35 or 0% ethanol- derived calories (EDC) from gestation days 6 through 20. A pair-feeding proce- dure was employed, and an ad lib lab chow control group was also included. At 5, 10, or 15 days of age, pups were infused with a saccharin solution through a cannula implanted in the oral cavity. Half of the pups in each group were then injected with lithium chloride (LiCl), which served as the poisoning agent, and the other half with sodium chloride (NaC1) as a control. Animals were subse- quently tested for a conditioned aversion to the saccharin solution. At 15 days of age, all of the pups in the LiC1-poisoned group demonstrated a conditioned taste aversion to the saccharin solution, but the degree of this aversion was less in alcohol-exposed offspring. At 10 days of age, a taste aversion was learned, although it was not as strong as that shown by 15-day-oldpups, and it appeared to be learned equally well by all of the prenatal treatment groups. At 5 days of age, there was marginal support for taste aversion learning. Again, it did not interact with prenatal treatment. The ontogenic differences in taste aversion learning exhibited by alcohol-exposed offspring relative to controls are discussed in terms of altered hippocampal development. Exposure to alcohol prenatally has been shown to cause a variety of physiological ef- fects including pre- and postnatal growth re- tardation, CNS abnormalities, and physical malformations (Jones and Smith, '73, '75). Using animal models to study these fetal alcohol effects, researchers have been able to reproduce many of the abnormalities noted in children and have thus provided a system by which these anomalies can be further studied (Randall, '77; Randall and Taylor, '79; Chernoff, '77; Sulik et al., '81). Consid- erable attention has also been focused upon the behavioral effects of prenatal alcohol ex- posure. Children of chronic alcoholics have been described as hyperactive, irritable, and distractable (Hanson et al., '76; Jones and Smith, '73; Lemoine et al., '68; Streissguth, '76). Similarly, animals exposed to alcohol prenatally exhibit a number of behavioral dysfunctions. For example, rats exposed to alcohol prenatally have been shown to be hyperactive (Bond and DiGiusto, '76, '771, to exhibit deficits in the acquisition of both pas- sive (Riley et al., '79a; Lochry and Riley, '80) and active (Abel, '79; Bond and DiGiusto, '78) avoidance, to take more trials prior to spon- taneous alternation and in learning the re- versal of a T-maze discrimination task (Riley et al., '79b) than controls, and to show altered suckling behavior (Chen et al., '82). Many of the behavioral anomalies noted in animals exposed to alcohol prenatally appear to be transient and diminish as the animal matures. The hyperactivity resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure, which is com- monly reported, is much more readily seen in young rats than in adults (Bond and Di- Giusto, '77). Similarly, passive avoidance def- icits are seen in preweanling animals but occur less readily in older animals (Riley et al., '79a; Abel, '82). Since tests of younger Received July 25, 1983; accepted December 19, 1983. Address reprint requests to Edward P. Riley, Department of Psychology, SUNY Albany, Albany, NY 12222. zyx 0 1984 ALAN R. LISS. INC.