Note that adolescent observers were never administered water or ethanol in this experiment, but were given the opportunity to socially interact with an alcohol-intoxicated demonstrator to assess changes in behavior. As depicted in Figure 2, adolescent ethanol naïve observer male rats that socially interacted with an alcohol-intoxicated peer administered the highest dose (1.5 g/kg) showed a significant increase in time spent in the chamber paired with the alcohol-intoxicated peer at the post-conditioning test relative to the preconditioning baseline assessment as compared to all other groups. There were no other significant differences observed in adolescent ethanol naïve male observers that socially interacted with an alcohol-intoxicated peer administered the lower ethanol dose (0.5 g/kg) relative to their controls. Nor were there changes in preference for the environment paired with social interaction with an alcohol-intoxicated demonstrator at either dose in ethanol-naïve female observers relative to their controls (Maldonado and Kirstein, unpublished data). Together, these data indicate adolescent male rats are especially sensitive to environmental conditions surrounding the influence of the peer on changes in behavior following social interaction with an alcohol-intoxicated peer.
