Mentor: Anna Radke, Ph.D.

Alcohol is among the most used drugs in the United States, creating a significant impact on public health, as 1 in 10 people ages 12 and older were affected by an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in 2024. AUDs are characterized by the inability to control alcohol use despite adverse consequences across multiple domains of a person’s life (1). Historically, men have been diagnosed with AUDs more than women; however, that gap is starting to close as drinking behaviors in women have started to converge (2). To address this issue, our understanding of sex differences in drinking behaviors is crucial. Drinking context is thought to be a critical aspect of these differences, as various models used to assess this likely evaluate different aspects of drinking behaviors. For reference, operant self-administration models of alcohol more effectively assess the reinforcing efficacy of ethanol and indicate that motivational influences vary across environmental and contextual conditions (3,4). This study aims to evaluate sex differences in ethanol drinking behavior using an operant self-administration paradigm. For the latter part of the study, we employed an aversive stimulus–foot shock–to assess whether the aversion was sufficient to alter these behaviors. In doing this, we found no sex differences in reward, correct responses, or sip count; however, males consumed greater ethanol volume on the final day of self-administration prior to foot shock. Despite an overall reduction in responding, subjects exhibited a compensatory increase in ethanol intake per access period, which indicates that motivation was maintained for ethanol. Consistent with prior literature, females demonstrated greater resistance to foot shock (5). This was shown for all measures, except correct responding, which was not anticipated and needs further study. Overall, we found that foot shock is an adequate mechanism for decreasing ethanol self-administration in both male and female mice.

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