Chronic alcohol consumption alters home-cage behaviors and responses to ethologically relevant predator tasks in mice.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Alcohol withdrawal is a key component of severe alcohol use disorder. Animal models of alcohol withdrawal tend to focus on traditional anxiety/stress tests. While these have been essential to advancing our understanding of the biology of alcohol withdrawal, abrupt cessation of drinking following heavy alcohol consumption can also trigger withdrawal-related affective states that impact responses to a variety of life events and stressors. To this end, we show that behaviors in a variety of tasks that differ in task demand and intensity are altered during withdrawal in male and female mice after voluntary alcohol access.

Methods

Male and female miceunderwent six weeks of intermittent two-bottle choice alcohol exposure followed by behavioral tests. The tests included-

SUBMITTER: Neira S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9906815 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature