have also been observed in rats that drank ethanol throughout gestation (253). In this study, females exposed to ethanol mother failed to retrieve pups removed from their nests, a task normally accomplished in a short time by control animals. The researchers also observed disorganized and distracted behavior in the mothers. For instance, dams might start carrying a pup part of the way toward the nest, but then drop it and be distracted by self-grooming, eating, or drinking and forget about the retrieval effort (253). Adult males also show disrupted social behaviors at adulthood. Male rat offspring exposed to ethanol prenatally spend less time sniffing other rats at PND 90 than those exposed to maternal saccharin water [gestational ethanol in drinking water; Ref. (254)] and display more aggressive behaviors, including attacks, tail rattling, and chasing in the presence of conspecifics (255). These findings in both rodents and human beings stress that the effects of FASD do not exist in childhood alone, and that they can have effects on the next generation of offspring.
