Co-existence of ethanol-related respiratory and motivational learning processes based on a tactile discrimination procedure in neonatal rats.

In rats, high ethanol doses during early postnatal life exert deleterious effects upon brain development that impact diverse social and cognitive abilities. This stage in development partially overlaps with the third human gestational trimester, commonly referred to as the brain growth spurt period. At this stage in development, human fetuses and rat neonates (postnatal days [PD] 3-9) exhibit relatively high respiratory rates that are affected by subteratogenic ethanol doses. Recent studies suggest conditioned breathing responses in the developing organism, given that there are explicit associations between exteroceptive stimuli and the state of ethanol intoxication. Furthermore, studies performed with near-term rat fetuses suggest heightened sensitivity to ethanol's motivational effects. The present study was meant to analyze the unconditioned effects of ethanol intoxication and the possible co-occurrence of learning mechanisms that can impact respiratory plasticity, and to analyze the preference for cues that signal the state of intoxication as well as the effects of the drug, related with motor stimulation. Neonatal rats were subjected to differential experiences with salient tactile cues explicitly paired or not paired with the effects of vehicle or ethanol (2.0 g/kg). A tactile discrimination procedure applied during PDs 3, 5, 7, and 9 allowed the identification of the emergence of ethanol-derived non-associative and associative learning processes that affect breathing plasticity, particularly when considering apneic disruptions. Ethanol was found to partially inhibit the disruptions that appeared to be intimately related with stressful circumstances defined by the experimental procedure. Tactile cues paired with the drug's effects were also observed to exert an inhibitory effect upon these breathing disruptions. The level of contingency between a given tactile cue and ethanol intoxication also resulted in significant changes in the probability of seeking this cue in a tactile preference test. In addition, the state of intoxication exerted motor-stimulating effects. When contrasting the data obtained via the analysis of the different dependent variables, it appears that most ethanol-derived changes are modulated by positive and/or negative (anti-anxiety) reinforcing effects of the drug. As a whole, the study indicates co-existence of ethanol-related functional changes in the developing organism that simultaneously affect respiratory plasticity and preference patterns elicited by stimuli that signal ethanol's motivational effects. These results emphasize the need to consider significant alterations due to minimal ethanol experiences that argue against "safe" levels of exposure in a critical stage in brain development.