Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Causes Attention Deficits in Male Rats

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are often diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These children show increases in reaction time (RT) variability and false alarms on choice reaction time (CRT) tasks. In this study, adult rats prenatally exposed to ethanol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 2005-02, Vol.119 (1), p.302-310
Main Authors: Hausknecht, Kathryn A, Acheson, Ashley, Farrar, Andrew M, Kieres, Artur K, Shen, Roh-Yu, Richards, Jerry B, Sabol, Karen E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcohol
Animal
Animal Models
Animals
Attention
Attention - drug effects
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - physiopathology
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Central Nervous System Stimulants - toxicity
Cognitive Impairment
Disease Models, Animal
Ethanol
Ethanol - toxicity
Female
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders - physiopathology
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders - veterinary
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Male
Males
Miscellaneous
Pregnancy
Prenatal development
Prenatal Exposure
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Reaction Time
Rodents
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Description
Summary:Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are often diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These children show increases in reaction time (RT) variability and false alarms on choice reaction time (CRT) tasks. In this study, adult rats prenatally exposed to ethanol were trained to perform a CRT task. An analysis of the distribution of RTs obtained from the CRT task found that rats with a history of prenatal ethanol exposure had more variable RT distributions, possibly because of lapses of attention. In addition, it was found that, similar to children with FASD, the ethanol-exposed rats had more false alarms. Thus, rats with prenatal ethanol exposure show attention deficits that are similar to those of children with FASD and ADHD.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/0735-7044.119.1.302