LASBRA Regional Meeting at Sao Paulo (2011)
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
The deadline for submission of abstracts is January 17th, 2011. The submission is now
open. Abstracts must be submitted electronically at lasbra2011@gmail.com
Detailed instructions for preparing the abstract follow:
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Abstracts must be no longer than 350 words
Abstracts must be in English
They should clearly state the author’s affiliations
Abstracts should follow the format (fonts type, sze, etc) of the model abstract that
can be found at the bottom of this section.
IMPORTANT: Students can apply for travel awards to help defrag the costs of
attending the meeting. To apply, answer the corresponding question in the
abstract template, as shown in the model abstract at the bottom of this section.
Awards will be given based on the quality of the abstract.
Abstracts will be assigned to a poster session. A reduced number of abstracts, however,
can be selected for an oral presentation (i.e., a 10-minute talk). If you prefer the oral
presentation please indicate so in the email.
We are planning to publish the abstracts and poster presentations in the Argentinean
Journal of Behavioral Sciences (AJBS, www.psyche.unc.edu.ar/racc), an online journal
sponsored by the Department of Psychology of the National University of Cordoba and
the Argentinean Association for Behavioral Sciences. Should you prefer not to have your
abstract published at the journal, please let us know and will follow your request.
If you have any questions about abstract submission, please contact us at
lasbra2011@gmail.com
ABSTRACT TEMPLATE
HIGH-DOSE ETHANOL INDUCES SECOND-ORDER AVERSIVE
CONDITIONING IN ADOLESCENT AND ADULT SPRAGUE-DAWLEY RATS
Pautassi, Ricardo Marcos
Instituto de Investigación Médica M. y M. Ferreyra (INIMEC - CONICET). Friuli
2434, Córdoba, CP 5000, 351-481465, Argentina. Córdoba, CP 5000, 3514334064 rpautassi@gmail.com
Alcohol abuse and dependence is as a developmental disorder with roots in late
childhood and adolescence (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2008).
Understanding age-related differences in ethanol sensitivity that can interact with genetic
predisposition to promote alcohol abuse and dependence is therefore important. In a
previous study, we found that low- to moderate ethanol doses (0.5 and 2.0 g/kg, i.g.,
Pautassi et al., 2008) induced appetitive second-order place conditioning (SOC) in
adolescent, but not adult, Sprague-Dawley rats. The present study assessed
motivational effects of high-dose ethanol (3.0 and 3.25 g/kg, for adolescents and adults,
respectively) through SOC at postnatal day 34 or 72 (P34 or 72). Ethanol dosage was
chosen on the basis of a first Experiment, which found similar blood and brain ethanol
levels (circa 200 mg%) in adolescent and adult rats given 3.0 and 3.25 g/kg,
respectively. In Experiment 2, animals were administered ethanol or vehicle paired with
intraoral pulses of sucrose (CS1 , first-order conditioning phase). After one or two
conditioning trials, rats were presented with the CS1 while in a visually and tactually
distinctive chamber (CS2 ) (second-order conditioning phase). This was followed by a
test for CS2 preference. Ethanol-treated animals exhibited reduced preference for the
CS2 when compared to controls. This result, indicative of ethanol-mediated aversive
place learning, was similar across age (P34 or 72, adolescence or adulthood), sex and
length of training (one or two trials). The present ethanol doses did not affect behavioral
reactivity (wall-climbing and overall locomotion) during the CS1 - CS2 pairings. In
conjunction with previous results, the present study suggests that, in adolescent rats and
when assessed by SOC procedures, ethanol’s hedonics have switched from appetitive
to aversive by intoxication levels of 200 mg%. Adolescent and adults animals of both
sexes seem to perceive the post-ingestive effects of this level of ethanol exposure as
similarly aversive, at least when indexed using the SOC procedure. The SOC
preparation can detect learning motivated by both appetitive and aversive sources of
reinforcement.
Grants: PIP CONICET 2010-2012; PICT-PRH UNC 2009; SUNY at Binghamton.
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