Heart Rate and Motor‐Activating Effects of Orally Self‐Administered Ethanol in Alcohol‐Preferring (P) Rats

Abstract

The data indicate that oral self-administration of EtOH enhances behavioral and autonomic activation, compared with saccharin or water, in adult male P rats and support previous observations that changes in HR can be used as an index of reinforcement. Additionally, it seems that the behavioral and autonomic activation elicited by EtOH self-administration can be conditioned to the environment in which EtOH was self-administered. These findings parallel reports on cued reactivity (behavioral and autonomic activation) in alcoholics exposed to alcohol-associated stimuli.