There is evidence that the activity in the NAC is altered by ethanol exposure during development. Blanchard et al. (1999) previously demonstrated a sexually dimorphic response on ethanol-induced dopamine release with males responding only after a high dose of ethanol when compared to controls. Prenatally exposed females failed to increase dopamine release in response to either dose of ethanol (Blanchard et al., 1999). We have previously demonstrated similar ethanol-induced alterations in behavioral tasks involving NAC activity including cocaine induced conditioned place preference (CPP) and juvenile play (Gass and Kelly, 2006, Lawrence et al., 2008). Females perinatally exposed to ethanol demonstrated cocaine-induced CPP at a lower dose and elevated c-Fos immunoreactivity (IR) in the NAC whereas males failed to demonstrate CPP until the highest dose of cocaine and no effect on c-Fos IR (Gass and Kelly, 2006). Further, male rats exposed to ethanol during both the prenatal and postnatal periods demonstrated reduced c-Fos IR in the NAC after a period of play compared to non-treated control rats. In contrast, ethanol-exposed females showed elevated c-Fos IR in the NAC after a period of play compared to intubated-control rats (Lawrence et al., 2008).
