Age-related differences in the appetitive and aversive motivational effects of alcohol

Abstract

Alcohol drinking behaviors occur very early in life and shape trajectories of alcohol use that can eventually lead to alcohol use disorders. This chapter focuses on age-related differences in sensitivity to the appetitive, andaversive motivational effects, of alcohol in rodent studies. Alcohol-induced conditioned aversion is difficult to detect up to postnatal days 810 and is significantly lower in adolescent than in adult subjects. Conversely, compared with adult counterparts, infant and adolescent rats are significantly more prone to the expression of conditioned preferences for exteroceptive stimuli (e.g., textures or distinctive chambers) that are paired with alcohol.The results suggest that immature subjects (i.e., infants and adolescents) exhibit differential sensitivity to alcohol?smotivational effects, which may explain their propensity to engage in, and escalate, alcohol intake. Futurestudies should focus on the ways in which the apparent reward-sensitive phenotype of late infancy and adolescenceis modulated by environmental and genetic factors.