Effects of ethanol and diazepam in spatial and avoidance learning

This study shows the consequences of the administration of diazepam and ethanol on two types of learning: spatial discrimination learning (water T maze) and an active avoidance task (shuttle box). The anxiolytic agents diazepam and ethanol, at the doses administered, favoured performance to a greater or lesser extent in stress behavioural tests, depending on the task. The behavioural results show that the spatial discrimination task performance was not impaired after the treatments. The results for the avoidance task suggest that the benzodiazepine-treated animals and those given saline performed the task less well than the untreated control group and the group treated chronically with ethanol.