Effects of Ethanol and Caffeine on Behavior in C57BL/6 Mice in the Plus-Maze Discriminative Avoidance Task

Introduction: Caffeine is frequently consumed concurrent to or immediately following ethanol consumption Identifying how caffeine and ethanol interact to modulate behavior is essential to understanding the co-use of these drugs The plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PMDAT) allows within-subject measurement of learning, anxiety, and locomotion Methods: For training, each mouse wits placed in the center of the plus-maze for 5 min. and each time that the mouse entered the aversive enclosed arm, a light and white noise were turned oil At testing, each mouse wits returned to the center of the maze for 3 min No cues were turned on during testing Results: Ethanol (1 0-1 4 g/kg) dose-dependently decreased anxiety and learning, and increased locomotion Caffeine (5 0-40 0 mg/kg) dose-dependently increased anxiety and decreased locomotion and learning Caffeine failed to reverse ethanol-induced learning deficits However, 1 4 g/kg ethanol blocked the anxiogenic effect of caffeine Discussion: Although caffeine and ethanol interact to modulate behavior in the PMDAT. caffeine does not reverse ethanol-induced learning, deficits Ethanol-induced anxiolysis may contribute to alcohol consumption. while ethanol's blockade of Caffeine-induced anxiogenesis may contribute to co-use.