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Pre-Natal Alcohol Exposure Shapes Sensory Preference, Upping Odds of Later Alcohol Use and Abuse |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Young people whose mothers drank when pregnant may be more likely to abuse alcohol because, in the womb, their developing senses came to prefer its taste and smell. Researchers with the State University of New York Developmental Ethanol Research Center have found that because the developing nervous system adapts to whatever mothers eat and drink, young rats exposed to alcohol (ethanol) in the womb drank significantly more alcohol than non-exposed rats. Lead author Steven Youngentob, PhD, observes that a biologically instilled preference for alcohol's taste and smell can make young people much more likely to abuse alcohol, especially in light of social pressures, risk-taking tendencies and alcohol's addicting qualities. They were the offspring of dams, or mother rats, from one of three experimental groups: ethanol-exposed via the mother's diet at levels simulating moderate to heavy drinking; pair-matched controls that ate the same amounts as ethanol exposed-dams to control for any effect of under-nutrition; and controls that ate freely.
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