ONTOGENETIC DIFFERENCES IN ANXIOLYTIC EFFECTS OF ETHANOL

这项研究旨在调查与年龄有关的 不同年龄组对酒精抗焦虑作用的敏感性差异 断奶和成年初期。 近期目标 是了解酒精可能作为一种 不同阶段有效抗焦虑非条件刺激 个体发育，并确定具体的发展时期， 一个有机体可能更容易受到 药 这些信息将为以下方面提供重要基础： 随后研究如何接触和学习的时间， 关于乙醇在生命早期的抗焦虑作用可能会在以后控制 饮酒模式，并有助于发展 酒精依赖 为了实现这些目标，两个 用于测量焦虑的实验范式， 选择适用于不同年龄受试者的样本， 潜在的个体发育差异：1）对任何 酒精的抗焦虑作用，以及2）对此类药物的耐受性/致敏性 重复药物暴露的影响。 实验1和2将 检查各种药物单次急性给药的影响 温和剂量的乙醇对恐惧增强的惊吓反应， 断奶仔猪（P23）的高架十字迷宫表现，青春期前后 (P35)成年（P75）大鼠。 使用这两个任务中的任何一个， 第三个实验将研究如何通过酒精体验 先前每日给药的顺序影响抗焦虑药 药物在上述年龄的作用。

The proposed research is designed to investigate age-related differences in sensitivity to anxiolytic effects of alcohol between the time of weaning and young adulthood. The immediate objectives are to understand the conditions under which alcohol may act as an effective anxiolytic unconditioned stimulus during different stages on ontogeny, and to identify specific developmental periods during which an organism may be more vulnerable to consequences of the drug. This information will provide a critical basis for subsequently examining how the timing of exposure to and learning about ethanol's anxiolytic effects early in life may control later alcohol-drinking patterns and contribute to the development of alcohol dependence. Toward achievement of these aims, two experimental paradigms used to measure anxiety that may be easily adapted for use with subjects of various ages were selected to assess potential ontogenetic differences in 1) initial sensitivity to any anxiolytic effects of alcohol, and 2) tolerance/sensitization to such effects with repeated drug exposure. Experiments 1 and 2 will examine the influence of a single acute administration of various mild doses of ethanol on the fear-potentiated startle response and elevated-plus maze performance of weanling (P23), periadolescent (P35), and adult (P75) rats. Using either of these two tasks, the third experiment will then examine how experience with alcohol via a sequence of prior daily administrations influences the anxiolytic action of the drug at the aforementioned ages.