Alcohol Drinking Behavior in Adult Rats: An Assessment of a Sucrose Fading Procedure
The effect of alcohol on learning and behavior is often chronicled through assessing the drug's effects on rodents that are trained to drink ethanol using various induction methods. Alcohol is known to work on various neuronal pathways in the brain and the effect is almost always a behavioral response in both humans and animals. In this experiment, the attempt was to induce non-stressed, free-choice drinking behavior in Long-Evans rats in order to determine alcohol drinking habits and learning abilities following exposure to the drug. By using a homecage drinking paradigm, coupled with the introduction of alcohol through a sucrose-fading procedure, it was predicted that rats would develop a strong preference for alcohol over water. After they exhibited this preference, rats would be tested in an operant behavior chamber to determine the extent of their dependence on alcohol. Ultimately, it was assumed that rats would respond more favorably to alcohol when given the choice and even begin to acquire a taste for the drug without sucrose. This preference manifested itself accordingly, Rats were made to drink in their homecage and a considerable amount of ethanol was consumed throughout the fading procedure. However, due to time constraints operant testing was limited. Yet, we are confident that future studies will conclude that rats trained using this specific method will in fact work harder (i.e., perform nose poke responses) to gain access to alcohol without the added sucrose.
School:
Xavier University of Louisiana
Department:
Neuroscience / Clinical Neuropsychology
Research Advisor:
Joshua Gulley
Department of Research Advisor:
Psychology
Year of Publication:
2008