Ontogenetic differences in ethanol-induced impairment of context and CS learning

A hypothesized action of ethanol is that it reduces processing of contextual stimuli. Given previous reports of age-related differences in stimulus selection, in the present study we utilized a conditioned suppression paradigm within an enhanced sensory context to examine the effects of ethanol on context and tone learning in preweanling and adult Sprague-Dawley rats as a function of tone-footshock interval. Although ethanol had some impairing influence on both context and tone conditioning in adults, tone responding nevertheless remained evident, whereas context conditioning was abolished regardless of the tone-footshock interval. In preweanlings, both context and tone responding were abolished by ethanol unless training occurred with contiguous tone-footshock pairings. It is suggested that age-specific modes of encoding are differentially sensitive to the effects of alcohol.