(216). Similarly, adult rat offspring (intubation GD 7–20) shows no evidence of motor dysfunction or hyperactivity on a rotarod or open field task (217). During this early window of observation, rats (gestational liquid diet) have been found to be ataxic, exhibiting asymmetrical gait, shorter stride length, and greater step angle than their respective controls (218). Young mice (<PND 60, gestational ethanol in drinking water) perform poorly on the runway and rotarod tasks (219). However, when ethanol administration was restricted to the postnatal period (intubation PND 4–9) as adults (>PND 70), these animals perform poorly on an eyeblink conditioning task, a form of classical conditioning where a light is paired with a puff of air on the eye, causing the animal to blink (220). The impaired performance on this hippocampal-independent task is thought to be due to ethanol-induced damage to the interpositus nucleus of the cerebellum (221). Thomas and colleagues (182) examined the specific timing of postnatal exposure to ethanol (via gastronomy) in relation to cerebellar damage and motor performance. This study identified PND 4/5 as a critical period for ethanol exposure where the greatest deficits could be seen on a parallel bar task at PND 30 and 52, where the
