Long-term risk preference and suboptimal decision making following adolescent alcohol use.

Full Abstract

Individuals who abused alcohol at an early age show decision-making impairments. However, the question of whether maladaptive choice constitutes a predisposing factor to, or a consequence resulting from, alcohol exposure remains open. To examine whether a causal link exists between voluntary alcohol consumption during adolescence and adult decision making the present studies used a rodent model. High levels of voluntary alcohol intake were promoted by providing adolescent rats with access to alcohol in a palatable gel matrix under nondeprivation conditions. A probability-discounting instrumental response task offered a choice between large but uncertain rewards and small but certain rewards to assess risk-based choice in adulthood either 3 weeks or 3 months following alcohol exposure. While control animals' performance on this task closely conformed to a predictive model of risk-neutral value matching, rats that consumed high levels of alcohol during adolescence violated this model, demonstrating greater risk preference. Evidence of significant risk bias was still present when choice was assessed 3 months following discontinuation of alcohol access. These findings provide evidence that adolescent alcohol exposure may lead to altered decision making during adulthood and this model offers a promising approach to the investigation of the neurobiological underpinnings of this link.

Author information

Author/s: Nasrallah, Nicholas A (NA); Yang, Tom W H (TW); Bernstein, Ilene L (IL);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.

Grants: AA014742 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; AA018053 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; DA014609 (Agency:NIDA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Oct; vol 106 (issue 41) : pp 17600-4

Dates: Created 2009/10/15; Completed 2009/11/03; Revised 2009/11/06;

PMID: 19805186, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/9/2009, IMS Date: )

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