Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Causes Attention Deficits in Male Rats

• 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
• ISSN: 0735-7044; 1939-0084
• DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.119.1.302

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.