Alcohol reshapes reward learning differently in male and female rats

By Hugo Francisco de SouzaReviewed by Susha Cheriyedath, M.Sc.Apr 10 2025New research shows how chronic alcohol exposure impairs flexible decision-making in male rats, while females maintain performance despite neural changes, pointing to critical sex differences in brain response to addiction.Study: Chronic ethanol exposure produces sex-dependent impairments in value computations in the striatum. Image Credit:Gorodenkoff/ ShutterstockIn a recent study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers employed a novel dynamic probabilistic reversal learning (dynaPRL) task to investigate the impact of chronic ethanol (EtOH) dependence in rats, particularly the striatal encoding of reward learning signals.The study revealed that EtOH induces significant alterations in exploration-exploitation trade-offs and several other behavioral metrics, with distinct neural adaptations in females and impairments predominantly in male rats. These behavioral deficits were long-term, persisting for...