Ethanol and Spatial Localization

Water (Exp. 1) and radial maze (Exp. 2) tasks permitted an evaluation of the relative degree of impairment imposed by ethanol (0, 0.75, 1.5, and 2.0 g/kg) on cognitive mapping vs. cued place learning. The tasks did not require working memory. A strong tendency emerged for ethanol-treated rats to persist in cognitive mapping strategies after the strategies were no longer useful, but there was no indication of a mapping impairment per se. When performance deficits appeared, they were equivalent across mapping and cued place tasks and may have reflected motivational effects of ethanol. In most instances, neither mapping nor cued place tasks were difficult for ethanol-treated animals unless the tasks required abandoning one strategy for another. The tenacity of ethanol-treated rats to use cognitive mapping strategies, particularly rats receiving the highest dose, proved consistent and theoretically decisive. The behavioral invariance of ethanol-treated rats is not caused by a cognitive mapping deficit. Rather, mapping is another domain in which ethanol reduces flexibility.