Behavioral Toxicity of Chronic Alcohol Drinking in Peri-Adolescent Monkeys

描述（由申请人提供）：青少年人群中娱乐性过度饮酒仍然是一个重要且日益严重的公共卫生问题。调查显示，10%的八年级学生和高达三分之一的高中高年级学生每周饮酒过量（5杯或更多）。在正规教育和大脑发育的关键时期大量饮酒可能会对以后的智力和认知功能造成严重风险。该研究将使用非人类灵长类动物模型来评估青春期大量饮酒在一系列认知领域的任务获取和表现的后果。该项目旨在确定因长期口服酒精摄入而受损的认知领域；冲动、酒精偏好和血清素转运蛋白基因型对行为改变的影响在青春期左右的猴子中，戒除慢性酒精暴露对认知和行为的影响。这些研究遵循了一个探索性/发展性项目（R21 AA013972, 02/05/04-01/31/07），该项目确定了雄性猴子在获得视觉-空间配对联想学习任务和执行空间工作记忆的空间延迟反应任务方面受到损害。接触酒精的动物在辨别、学习和长期记忆测试中没有受到损害，这表明酒精可能对特定的认知领域有选择性的影响。拟议的研究将使用一种既定的程序，在实验组中产生持续的高水平饮酒，这些实验组将被允许在24个月内口服自我饮酒（M-F）。实验组和对照组的猴子将同时接受一系列综合测试的训练（部分源自人类的CANTAB），这些测试将探索学习、记忆、注意力和运动功能的多个方面。我们假设，那些更依赖于额叶型执行功能的任务将优先受到长期饮酒的影响。进一步预测，可归因于酒精的认知差异将在长期不接触酒精后继续存在。公共卫生相关性：酒精仍然是青少年滥用最多的精神药物，多达一半的12年级学生报告在过去30天内消费。大多数使用酒精的12年级学生报告在前两周内至少有一次严重饮酒（5杯或更多）。青春期是大脑发育的关键时期，也是获得和完善职业成功所必需的许多认知技能的关键时期。这些研究试图确定饮酒会干扰学习、记忆、注意力和其他关键认知功能的机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recreational overuse of alcohol among adolescent populations remains a significant and growing public health concern. Surveys report that 10% of eighth graders and up to a third of high school seniors consume binge quantities (5 drinks or more) of alcohol on a weekly basis. Heavy drinking during this critical period of formal education and significant brain development may pose serious risk for later intellectual and cognitive function. The proposed studies will use a nonhuman primate model to evaluate the consequences of heavy drinking during adolescence task acquisition and performance in a range of cognitive domains. The project seeks to determine the cognitive domains which are impaired by chronic oral alcohol intake; contributions of impulsivity, alcohol preference and serotonin transporter genotype to behavioral change; and the cognitive and behavioral effects of withdrawal from chronic alcohol exposure in periadolescent monkeys. These studies follow an Exploratory/Developmental project (R21 AA013972, 02/05/04-01/31/07) in which it was established that male monkeys consuming alcohol are impaired in acquiring a visuo-spatial paired-associates learning task and in performing the spatial delayed-response task of spatial working memory. Alcohol-exposed animals appeared unimpaired on discrimination learning and long-term memory tests suggesting an effect which may be selective for specific cognitive domains. The proposed studies will use an established procedure to generate consistent, high levels of alcohol drinking in the experimental groups which will be allowed to orally self-administer alcohol (M-F) for 24 months. The experimental groups and control group monkeys will be concurrently trained on a comprehensive battery of tests (derived in part from the human CANTAB) which probe multiple aspects of learning, memory, attention and motor functions. It is hypothesized that tasks which depend more on frontal-type executive function will be preferentially affected by chronic alcohol drinking. It is further predicted that cognitive differences attributable to alcohol will be maintained upon long-term removal of access to alcohol. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Alcohol remains the most abused psychoactive drug in adolescents with up to half of 12th graders reporting consumption in the past 30 days. The majority of alcohol using 12th graders report at least one heavy drinking episode (5 drinks or more) in the prior two weeks. Adolescence is a critical time for both brain development and the acquisition and refinement of many cognitive skills necessary for vocational success. These studies seek to identify the mechanisms by which alcohol drinking can interfere with learning, memory, attention and other critical cognitive functions.