Abstract
In a one-trial step-through passive avoidance task, pretraining administration of ethanol was shown to decrease the latencies to step through at both training (day 1) and testing (day 2) for both rats and mice. A detailed analysis of these effects showed that they differed from those reported previously by others. The mechanisms underlying these effects of ethanol were also examined. The decreased day 1 latency to step through seen in rats may have been caused by an ethanol-induced hypermotility. However, ethanol did not increase the locomotor activity of mice, although it also reduced the day 1 latency to step through of this species. In addition, it was found that the ethanol-induced impairment of passive avoidance responding (i.e. the decreased day 2 latency to step through) was not state-dependent and that it was unlikely that it could be explained by a drug-induced impairment of task acquisition, long-term memory formation or memory recall. It also seemed unlikely that the impairment could be explained by an ethanol-induced decrease in shock sensitivity. Other mechanisms which may be involved are discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alkana RL, Parker ES (1979) Memory facilitation by post-training injection of ethanol. Psychopharmacology 66:117–119
Archer J (1975) Rodent sex differences in emotional and related behavior. Behav Biol 14:451–479
Bass MB, Friedman HJ, Lester D (1978) Antagonism of naloxone hyperalgesia by ethanol. Life Sci 22:1939–1946
Brick J, Sun JY, Davis L, Pohorecky LA (1976) Ethanol and the response to electric shock in rats. Life Sci 18:1293–1298
Cappell H, Herman CP (1972) Alcohol and tension reduction: A review. Q J Stud Alcohol 33:33–44
Carlsson A, Engel J, Svensson TH (1972) Inhibition of ethanol-induced excitation in mice and rats by α-methyl-p-tyrosine. Psychopharmacologia 26:307–312
Casteliano C, Filibeck U, Oliverio A (1976) Effects of herion, alone or in combination with other drugs, on the locomotor activity in two inbred strains of mice. Psychopharmacology 49:29–31
Chesher GB (1974) Facllitation of avoidance acquisition in the rat by ethanol and its abolition by α-methyl-p-tyrosine. Psychopharmacologia 39:87–95
Eriksson K, Wallgren H (1967) Behaviour of rats under the influence of ethyl alcohol in an open-field situation. Scand J Psychol 8:257–267
File SE (1976) A comparison of the effects of ethanol and chlordiazepoxide on exploration and on its habituation. Physiol Psychol 4:529–532
File SE, Wardill AG (1975) Validity of head-dipping as a measure of exploration in a modified hole-board. Psychopharmacologia 44:53–59
Gibbons JD (1976) Nonparametric methods for quantitative analysis. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York
Holloway FA (1972) State-dependent effects of ethanol on active and passive avoidance learning. Psychopharmacologia 25:238–261
Kakihana R (1976) Adrenocortical function in mice selectively bred for different sensitivity to ethanol. Life Sci 18:1131–1138
MacInnes JW, Uphouse LL (1973) Effects of alcohol on acquisition and retention of passive-avoidance conditioning in different mouse strains. J Comp Physiol Psychol 84:398–402
Matchett JA, Erickson CK (1977) Alteration of ethanol-induced changes in locomotor activity by adrenergic blockers in mice. Psychopharmacology 52:201–206
McGaugh JL (1966) Time-dependent processes in memory storage. Science 153:1351–1358
Oliverio A, Eleftheriou BE (1976) Motor activity and alcohol: Genetic analysis in the mouse. Physiol Behav 16:577–581
Parker ES, Alkana RL (1977) Effect of ethanol on memory storage processes. Soc Neurosci Abstr 3:299
Pohorecky LA, Newman B, Sun J, Bailey WH (1978) Acute and chronic ethanol ingestion and serotonin metabolism in rat brain. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 204:424–432
Prado de Carvalho L, Vendite DA, Izquierdo I (1978) A near-lethal dose of ethanol, given intraperitoneally, does not affect memory consolidation of two different avoidance tasks. Psychopharmacology 59:71–74
Ryback RS (1971) The continuum and specificity of the effects of alcohol on memory: A review. Q J Stud Alcohol 32:995–1016
Schenker VJ (1970) Effects of ethanol on the endocrines. In: Trémoliéres J (ed) Alcohols and derivatives. International Encyclopedia of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Section 20, Vol 1. Pergamon, Oxford, pp 261–274
Siegel S (1956) Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. McGraw Hill-Kogakusha, Tokyo
Stokes PE (1971) Alcohol-endocrine interrelationships. In: Kissin B, Begleiter H (eds) The biology of alcoholism, Vol 1. Plenum, New York, pp 397–436
Svensson TH, Thieme G (1969) An investigation of a new instrument to measure motor activity of small animals. Psychopharmacologia 14:157–163
Wallgren H, Barry III H (1970) Actions of alcohol, Vol 1. Elsevier, Amsterdam
Whittier JL, McReynolds P (1965) Persisting odours as a biasing factor in open-field research with mice. Can J Psychol 19:224–230
Winer BJ (1971) Statistical principles in experimental design. Second edition. McGraw Hill, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bammer, G., Chesher, G.B. An analysis of some effects of ethanol on performance in a passive avoidance task. Psychopharmacology 77, 66–73 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00436101
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00436101