In the present study, cued and contextual fear conditioning were tested in 3xTg-AD and WT mice to assess the potential impact of a history of alcohol intake on emotional responding and associative memory. Results showed heightened freezing behavior by alcohol-exposed 3xTg-AD mice as compared to saccharin controls when presented with a cue that was previously paired with shock. No differences in freezing were observed when mice were exposed to the shock paired context (Fig. 5C). Although two-way ANOVA (alcohol × genotype) found no main effect for either variable and no interaction following both the cue and context test, a single planned comparison showed that 3xTg-AD mice with a history of alcohol drinking exhibited increased freezing behavior following exposure to the cue as compared to saccharin exposed 3xTg-AD mice (t = 1.947, df = 6.076, P < 0.05, Fig. 5C).
