Prenatal and postnatal ethanol exposure influences preweanling rats' behavioral and autonomic responding to ethanol odor.

The specific question was how prenatal and/or postnatal experience with ethanol influences cardiac and behavioral responses to the odor of ethanol on postnatal day (PD) 16. In each of two experiments, pregnant rats were given ethanol or water on gestational days 17-20. Offspring were exposed on PD12 to one of three conditions: intragastric administration of 6% ethanol, indirect exposure to ethanol from littermates, or no treatment. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that, regardless of prenatal ethanol exposure, 16-day-olds exposed on PD12 either directly or indirectly to ethanol expressed a greater increase in HR in response to ethanol odor than pups not postnatally exposed to ethanol. In Experiment 2, in which a lower ethanol dose was used postnatally, an interaction between pre- and postnatal ethanol exposure was observed; that is, pups exposed pre- and postnatally to ethanol showed the greatest increases in HR and the smallest increases in motor activity in response to ethanol odor. In both experiments motor activity was dissociated from increases in HR. The results are discussed in terms of what is learned, prenatally and postnatally, in association with the chemosensory properties of ethanol.